Lumina Noctis: You're not alone
by DelFina18
Summary: At the traditional summer festival in Mizuho Sheena and the others notice that Zelos is acting much more mature. While Sheena is soon attracted to this new Zelos, Raine and Yuan are suspecting that something must be wrong. Zelos x Sheena,  Yuan x Raine
1. Prologue

Hello everyone!

Here I am with another translated story of mine (my mothertongue is German, so there might be some mistakes). It's one of my favourite stories because I think that I've written it pretty well (at least in German xD) and it has an unique story.

So, if you read the summary you saw that the pairings are Zelos x Sheena and Yuan x Raine. The latter one was supposed to be in brackets, but it doesn't work. *sigh* It was supposed to be that way because in the main story there are only hints to this pairing. But at the end there will be also a chapter with special Yuan x Raine scenes, so it will be left to you if you want to read them or not. =) The reason why I made it like that is because I'm a devoted Kraine fan, and I somehow had a bad feeling with pairing Raine up with Yuan ... xD I don't have these concerns anymore, but oh well ... ^^ In any case this is another reason why this story is distinct from all my other stories because I've never paired up Raine with anybody else than Kratos before. But I just couldn't let Kratos appear in this story, and so Yuan had to take his place. xD

Well, that's that. Another thing I want to mention are the quotes. I've tried to find them in English, but I wasn't really successful with the first ones and then I gave up. I decided to keep the German quotes and just translate them into English myself. (That's the reason why the probably don't sound that well. xD) The quotes often give hints to what will happen, as well as the title of the respective chapter.

So ... I hope you'll enjoy this story. =)

**Disclaimer/Claimer: **I neither own Tales of Symphonia nor the quotes, but some characters appearing in the story.

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><p><strong>~ Prologue ~<strong>

„_**Das ganze Leben wird dem Glücklichen zu kurz. Dem Leidenden nimmt eine Nacht kein Ende."**_

_**("The whole life gets too short for the happy one. For the suffering one the night doesn't come to an end.")**_

_**Christian Friedrich Wilhelm Jacobs (1764 – 1847)**_

:::_**  
><strong>_

It sometimes really is astonishing how fast life can change. It's like the wind, blowing at one moment in one direction, at another moment in another one. Just now you're happy and actually having everything you need, but already at the next moment you have lost everything you had. Your possessions, your friends, your place in life.

The thought that you'll never be able to do the things you still wanted to do someday is then torturing you. The realizing that you frittered your life away with unimportant things is bothering you. But worst is the assumption that you'll never be able to go back.

I will now tell you a story that's exactly about this. It's a story about despair, loneliness and grief, but also about love, friendship and luck, and an eternally lasting night in which light brings hope, but also fear.

But above all it's _my_ story.


	2. Beginning of the Night

Here's the first chapter, the real beginning of the story ... By the way, 'Lumina Noctis' is Latin and means 'lights of the night' or 'eyes of the night'. Both translations fit to this story, that's why I really like this title. ^^ And 'You're not alone' can be seen both positive and negative in this story ... It's a bit funny, you know the song 'You're not alone' by Mads Langer? I looked at the lyrics yesterday, and they quite fit to this story. ^^

Well, I've said enough. Enjoy the chapter. ;)

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><p><strong>~ Chapter 1: Beginning of the Night ~<strong>

„_**Dass andere Leute kein Glück haben, finden wir sehr natürlich, dass wir selber keins haben, erscheint uns immer unfassbar."**_

_**("That other people don't have luck we find very natural, that we don't have it ourselves always seems incomprehensible to us.")**_

_**Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830 – 1916)**_

:::_**  
><strong>_

"Zelos!"

I knew this tone; it didn't mean anything good. While I was standing up slowly and already fabricating an excuse a pretty upset Sheena came towards me.

"Why the hell was this," she held one of her bras in front of my nose, "lying in front of my room?"

"That's a good question," I said slowly. "Maybe there's an underwear thief here, and he dropped it. After all there are some pretty shady figures here. But don't be afraid, Sheena hunny, I'll protect you from th …" An uppercut stopped me from finishing my sentence.

"Do you think I'm buying that crap about the unknown underwear thief? Admit that it was you! Honestly, Zelos, when will you finally grow up?" She stamped away angrily while I first of all made sure that all teeth were where they belonged.

Even if Sheena hadn't wanted to believe me once again, I was innocent. I didn't need to steal lingerie; I had after all many admirers who liked to send me their bras and panties. But admittedly, I didn't have anything like this from Sheena yet … But still I hadn't sunken that low to steal lingerie.

Sighing, I headed to my room to pack my things. Sheena and I had been sent to Palmacosta by the King of Meltokio to talk about the economic situation of Sylvarant with Governor-General Neil. After the two worlds had been united there was a huge gap between the two worlds regarding economy and technological advance. Moreover, Sylvarant hadn't had a real government; every city and town had governed itself more or less.

So it wasn't surprising that the Tethe'allans, who were living a life of luxury, were figuring the Sylvaranti, who were living under poorer circumstances, as uneducated farmers.

To diminish this gap a little bit the problem with the government had been solved first. The mayors of all Sylvaranti cities and towns had allied into a senate that had appointed Neil as its ambassador and the one of whole Sylvarant. Changes that affected Sylvarant were thus first discussed with him before he then talked about it with the senate.

One of the first things that had then been decided by the new government together with the King of Meltokio and Regal was the building of a second branch of the Lezareno Company to kick-start the economy of Sylvarant. Furthermore, the Magitechnology Corporation, in short Magy Corp, had been founded. It was managed together by Regal and Yuan and was responsible for the production of modern devices.

Because of all these changes a clear economic approach of Sylvarant to Tethe'alla could be seen, but it would still take some years until the world was united regarding this point as well.

However, because the King of Tethe'alla was pretty busy he had charged Sheena and me with consulting with Neil in his stead, and to notify him later of all decisions and intentions. Why he had chosen us of all people for this task was still a mystery to me.

Well, in any case Sheena and I were supposed to return to Meltokio today to report everything to the king.

While we were flying back with the Rheairds Sheena didn't say a word. Apparently she was still angry about the bra-thing, but I knew that it would've been pointless to assure her once again that it hadn't been me.

When we arrived at the castle of Meltokio we were immediately received by the king. He was sitting on his throne as always and hurriedly signing a paper before he turned towards us. "How's the situation?"

Sheena took out her notepad and began to report. "Good. Sylvarant is making great progress. The villages are growing and slowly developing into cities, almost everybody has work and enough Gald to survive, and the Magy Corp is momentarily working on a device for the cooling of food. The planned name for it is 'refrigerator'. It could be a really helpful invention, and we're assuming that the people of Tethe'alla will derive benefit from it as well."

"How does this 'refrigerator' work?" the king wanted to know.

"On the back there's a cooling unity …"

"Cooling unit!" Sheena corrected me.

"That's what I said … So, the temperature of this cooling unit is adjusted by a thermometer …"

"Thermostat," Sheena interrupted me, sighing.

"… thermostat. The interior of the refrigerator is thus cooled down compared to the outside temperature, and so food can be preserved longer because the biological processes making food normally inedible are proceeding much slower," I explained while looking at my own, apparently at some points wrong notes.

The king nodded contentedly. "That really seems to be a helpful invention."

"Yes. These devices will definitely be sold out quickly as soon as they're on the market, which is why the Magy Corp and thus Sylvarant will gain much Gald. And so the economic climate in Sylvarant will improve a bit," Sheena added.

"Alright. You two can leave."

When we had left the castle Sheena walked down the stairs hurriedly.

"Hey, Sheena! Why don't we go eat something?" I asked while following her.

"I won't go anywhere with you! Besides, I have to go home and prepare the traditional summer festival," Sheena uttered in an annoyed tone.

"Ah, right, the summer festival … When does it take place again?" I inquired.

"In a week."

I grinned, and Sheena walked towards me, looking threateningly at me. "If you're planning on making a drinking and flirting party out of it, I'll chuck you out of Mizuho on your ear!"

"Sheena, I'm disappointed." I sighed theatrically. "How can you trust me to do something like that?"

"I just wanted to warn you." Sheena turned around and walked away.

"So, see ya at the festival!" I called after her, but she didn't react. I rubbed my head, sighing. Would Sheena ever have a better opinion of me?

I just wanted to head to my mansion when I saw two shady figures coming towards me. They were wearing long dark blue cloaks and sunglasses, and they somehow didn't seem pleasant at all.

"Zelos Wilder?" one of them asked. He had short brown hair and was a little bit taller than the other one.

"Yeah. What do you want?" I wanted to know, a little bit suspicious.

"We have to ask you to come with us," the brown haired one said, and I saw something in his face that I didn't like at all.

At this moment I didn't know yet what fate had planned for me, that my life wouldn't be any longer as it had been before.

This moment was the beginning of a darkness that wasn't supposed to end that soon.

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><p>Poor Zelos. xD Always falsely accused ...<p>

Well, it's time for the world of Tales of Symphonia to get refrigerators. xDD I just assumed that they don't have them yet, so it was time for them to be invented. ^^

The end doesn't look good, huh? xD Hehehe, the darkness begins ...

By the way, don't get used to the first-person narrator; apart from this chapter there's only one other chapter that's written like that, the others are written in the third person from Sheena's point of view. In the course of the story you'll be able to understand why I did it like that. =)

Ah, that's right, I'll update the story every Wednesday (I just like to have a scheduled date for updating), so you know when you'll find the next chapter here. ;)

To be continued ...


	3. Night of Lights

Yay, the next chapter. ^^

Thanks to all who put this story on their favourite or alert list. =)

So, just to warn you, Zelos will be very OOC the next chapters, but there's a very good reason for it. So it isn't because I can't describe Zelos correctly. xD

Well, enjoy the chapter. ^^

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><p><strong>~ Chapter 2: Night of Lights ~<strong>

„_**Hörst du, dass sich ein Berg bewegt habe, so glaub es; hörst du jedoch, jemand habe seinen Charakter geändert, so glaub es nicht." **_

_**("If you hear that a mountain moved, believe it; however, if you hear that somebody changed their character, don't believe it.")**_

_**Arabic saying**_

:::_**  
><strong>_

Every human believes to know what darkness is. The darkness of the night for example. But that's not absolute darkness. In the night there's always light. The light of the moon, the light of the stars … The light of candles, the light of fireworks …

There's none of this in absolute darkness. Everything's just black; everything looks the same. Nothing can be seen at all.

And if light enters this absolute darkness after all, then it doesn't bring warmth but cold, and there's no hope either, but it rather takes it away.

In the darkness you're alone; however, in the light you never are.

:::

Sheena looked around contentedly. Everybody seemed to have a good time, and all preparations of the fireworks had already been made. The traditional summer festival seemed to become great this year again. But the evening wasn't over yet, and much could still happen.

"Hey, Sheena." Lloyd came towards her with a grin. "How are you? You had much to do lately, right?"

Sheena nodded. "Yes, on the one hand as the Chief of Mizuho and on the other hand as an ambassador of the king … And what are you doing? Are you still searching for the Exspheres?"

Lloyd shook his head. "We should've eliminated all. Right now I'm building a boat so that I can sail the ocean with it to search for treasures and uninhabited islands. It will definitely be a lot of fun, right, Colette?"

The former Chosen nodded with a smile. "Oh yes. Noishe will probably like it as well. Genis, Professor Sage, don't you also want to come along?"

"I pass," Raine said pretty quickly. "I have much to do right now with the translation of ancient scrolls."

"Ah, just admit that you don't want to come along because you're afraid of water," Genis uttered cheekily, earning a deadly glare from his sister.

Everybody laughed until Regal, Presea and Yuan were coming towards them and greeting them cheerfully.

"Say, am I just imagining things or is Zelos acting strange today?" Regal asked the others while glancing at the red haired Chosen who was talking to some employees of the Magy Corp and seemingly having a good time.

"What do you mean?" Lloyd inquired.

"He's talking to guys. That's pretty unusual, keeping in mind that he normally rather looks for female company," Yuan explained.

"That's right," Genis agreed.

Zelos eventually walked towards them and greeted them with a cheerful smile. When they asked him what he had been talking about with the employees he said: "I informed myself about the refrigerator once again. This invention is fascinating me somehow. In any case I won't hesitate to buy one." He turned to Regal and Yuan. "I heard you have already plans for the next invention?"

"Yes, but it's still lacking the execution. We want to build a mini-teleport, but until now we weren't successful with transferring the functions of a normal sized teleport to such a small device," Regal explained. "To be able to teleport constantly huge amounts of mana are needed, but such a small device just can't withstand such amounts. Honestly speaking, we are at a loss how to save the problem."

"Hmm … How about reducing the amounts of mana so far that it only suffices for one or two teleportations and then has to be charged with mana again?" Zelos suggested. "You could then invent a charging device for the mini-teleports as well."

Yuan seemed pensive. "That's not a bad idea … Zelos, if that works, then you're a genius!"

Everybody probably awaited for Zelos to act like a big-headed character after that comment, but he was astonishingly modest. "Don't mention it. It's not even certain if it really works. Well, I'm getting myself something to drink. Sheena, do you want something as well?" He was looking at her friendly.

Sheena needed a while to find her voice again. "Um … Yeah, water … Please."

Zelos nodded and walked away while Sheena followed him with her eyes, confused. Regal and Yuan were quietly talking about Zelos' suggestion, Lloyd, Colette, Genis and Presea wanted to get something to eat, and Raine walked towards Sheena.

"Strange, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yeah … I would've never thought that he could pull himself together that well," Sheena said.

"I have the feeling that there's more behind it," Raine uttered. "In any case it won't do any harm to keep an eye on him."

Sheena nodded.

Moments later Zelos returned with two glasses with water and a beaming smile on his face. "I just found out that the fireworks will start before long. We should go and find a good viewing spot." He handed her the glass with water. "I thought that we should head to the river."

Who said that they would go somewhere _together _anyway? But Sheena just wasn't able to say anything against Zelos' suggestion because his whole behavior this evening was confusing her. He suddenly seemed to be a completely different person, so … mature somehow.

So they headed to the river that was a little bit outlying from the whole turmoil of the festival. Sheena could hear the voices only muffled, in exchange the quiet lapping of the water could be heard much clearer. She wanted to sit down on the ground, but Zelos stopped her.

"Wait." He took off his jacket and laid it on the ground. "Grass stains wouldn't look good on your yukata."

She sat down on his jacket confusedly. Since when was he so … courteous?

The first rocket was shooting into the sky and left behind some red sparks for some seconds. The fireworks had started. More and more rockets were illuminating the night in different colors.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Zelos asked.

"Yes …" Sheena murmured. While the multi-colored lights in the sky were reflected in the water Sheena had to think of how different Zelos was today and what the reason was. She was pondering so much that she didn't even notice that the fireworks had already come to an end.

Zelos stretched a hand out to her, helping her up as soon as she had taken it. However, Sheena tripped so that she bumped against Zelos. When she was that close to his body her heart suddenly started racing and her cheeks were turning red.

"Is everything alright? Have you twisted your ankle?" Zelos asked worriedly.

Sheena just shook her head, unable to say something. Her head suddenly just consisted of cotton wool; she wasn't capable of thinking straight.

"I'm relieved."

Zelos was smiling at her, which didn't help Sheena at all to come to her senses again but rather worsened the whole situation. Had he smiled that nicely, that sincerely ever before? Had his eyes sparkled that way ever before?

Sheena was like hazy as they walked back. The festival had come to an end after the fireworks and many had already gone home. Only a few persons like Orochi were still there and tidying up a little bit. Sheena wanted to help them, but Zelos put a hand on her shoulder which caused goose bumps to appear on her body.

"You should go to bed, Sheena, you look tired. I'll help here a little bit, so you can rest assured," Zelos uttered.

"But …" Sheena started before Zelos put a finger on her lips whereupon her legs would've almost given in.

"No 'but'."

She nodded slowly and then walked with legs, that seemed to consist of jelly, to her house. Just what was wrong with her? Why … did she suddenly feel attracted to Zelos? He had pulled himself together today, fair enough, but … He was still a Don Juan who fancied himself as irresistible and flirted with women shamelessly … Or not?

Sheena wasn't that sure any longer if Zelos was really still the same way as he had been a week ago.

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><p>Hmm ... I won't say much to the first part of the chapter, only that there's such a part at the beginning of every of the following chapters. Of course this has a reason. xD And in the course of the story you'll understand what they're about. There's also a reason why it's written in present tense ... To tell you the truth, almost everything has a reason in this story. xD<p>

By the way, a yukata is a somewhat lighter kimono that's worn in the summer. I think everybody knows what a kimono is, right? o.O

Well ... I think Sheelos fans really liked this chapter. xD You'll like the next chapters even more ... Provided that you ignore the dark signs. *grin*

To be continued ...


	4. Night of Feelings

Hey!

Here's the next chapter. I think Sheelos fans will really like it. =) However, you should always keep in mind that not everything is the way it seems ... Muahahaha. xD

Whatever, enjoy the chapter. ;)

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><p><strong>~ Chapter 3: Night of Feelings ~<strong>

„_**Ein einziger Augenblick der Liebe kann wichtiger sein als der ganze alltägliche Trubel."**_

_**("One single moment of love can be more important than the whole ordinary turmoil.")**_

_**Ardis Whitman (1905 – 1990)**_

:::

One thing that makes up a live are feelings. Feelings make you alive. You laugh, you cry, you're happy, you're angry or sad … You like things and persons or hate them …

These feelings are processes that are caused by certain situations.

Normally there's always a balance between positive and negative feelings. But what if you're in a situation in which you can only have feelings of the negative side?

It makes you crazy. It makes life unbearable.

:::

"As expected, the first product line of the refrigerators was quickly sold out. The Magy Corp almost can't keep up with the production; the demand is that great. There are already many pre-orders for the mini-teleports coming on the market soon, so they will be sold out in no time as well," Zelos reported to the king while Sheena was hanging on his every word.

Three days had passed since the summer festival, and Zelos was still acting like he had that evening. It was almost frightening; frightening how much Sheena felt attracted to this side of Zelos.

"That's what I like to hear. Very well, you can leave," the king announced.

Zelos bowed, and Sheena hurried to follow his example before she walked outside with him. Like the days before as well the sun was shining, and it was pretty warm. Laughing children were running past them when they had walked down the stairs in front of the castle.

"How about eating ice cream?" Zelos asked cheerily.

"Ice cream? But I still have to …"

"You don't have to do anything," Zelos said while taking her hand, causing a cold chill to run down Sheena's spine.

He took her to the next ice cream stand, and Sheena wasn't able to say even one single word. When Zelos asked her what sort she wanted to have she first had to find her voice again.

"Va … Vanilla," Sheena stammered.

Zelos nodded, and moments later he handed her the vanilla ice cream. He had decided for chocolate ice cream. They headed to a fountain where they eventually sat down on a bench, eating the ice cream in silence and enjoying the moment.

"Have you actually plans for this evening?" Zelos suddenly asked.

"N … Not really …" Sheena answered, feeling her cheeks getting slightly warm.

"What do you think of having dinner with me this evening? Sebastian will certainly cook something delicious."

Sheena nodded, once again unable of speaking. It couldn't go one like that! She really had to pull herself together.

After they had finished eating their ice creams they parted, and Sheena flew back to Mizuho where Orochi was already waiting for her.

"Sheena, I'm supposed to tell you from Regal and Yuan that tomorrow evening there's a gala taking place in the branch of the Magy Corp to celebrate the successful sale of the refrigerators."

"Okay. Is grandfather already back from his mission?"

"Yes. He's already awaiting you," Orochi answered.

Sheena nodded and headed to her house in which she found her grandfather Igaguri, playing chess together with Tiga.

"Ah, Sheena. You're back," Igaguri noticed.

"Hello, grandfather." Sheena hugged him salutatory. "How was the mission?"

"Easy, much too easy. Those bastards underestimated me. They probably thought they're dealing with an old, weak man, but they were greatly wrong. I'm still pretty fit for my age." Igaguri was laughing.

"Nonetheless, I would like it better if you didn't accept any missions anymore … You're after all no spring chicken anymore." Sheena looked at him, worried.

"You can tell him that still a hundred times, he won't listen to you. He's just a pighead", Tiga uttered.

"As long as I'm still fit I'll go on missions. Period," Igaguri replied. "Ah, Sheena, do you want to go drinking with us this evening?"

Sheena gave him a reproachful look. "Grandfather! You're not supposed to drink!"

"Ah, a few sips of sake keeps the mind awake and the body mobile. So, what do you say?"

Sheena remembered her date with Zelos and blushed madly.

"Oh, it looks like she already has plans for this evening," Tiga laughed.

"Yes," Sheena admitted.

"Well then," Igaguri said laughingly. "Young people shouldn't be held up."

Sheena let the two continue their chess match and headed to her room where she was soon confronted with the question what to wear in the evening. Rummaging around her wardrobe she panicked. She just didn't have anything appropriate! Either the colors were a disaster, the clothes too normal or too saucy. Didn't she have anything that was looking nice and also suited her? The wardrobe was almost empty, and the hope almost lost when she suddenly found two dresses. One of them was dark red, had slender straps and was downwards getting wider, whereas the other one was dark blue, somewhat tighter and having broader straps.

Where did she get those? For what occasion had she bought them? In any case she was certain that she hadn't worn them ever before. But they were now saving the day for her. She would wear the dark blue one this evening and the dark red one the next evening at the gala.

Fortunately she soon found compatible shoes as well, so the only question left was what to do with her hair. She eventually decided to wear it undone for a change. She normally didn't do that because it was annoying when the hair constantly fell into the face.

When she was finally done she realized that it was slowly time to leave. She parted from Tiga and her grandfather, reminding the latter one once again of not drinking too much.

When she arrived in Meltokio the sun was just setting, bathing everything in an orange-red light. Maybe she was a little bit too early … But Zelos wouldn't hold it against her.

She headed to his mansion. She knocked on the door, and after some seconds the butler Sebastian opened it.

"Ah, Miss Sheena, come in. I'm afraid the master is still having a visitor, but he will probably leave soon. You can wait in the parlor for the time being."

Sheena nodded and sat down on the couch while the butler entered Zelos' study to announce Sheena's arrival. After that he disappeared in the direction of the kitchen, and it didn't take long until Zelos and his visitor came out of the study.

Sheena surveyed the man clad in a dark blue cloak curiously. He seemed somehow unlikeable, and when he put on his sunglasses as he left the house he was even a little bit creepy in Sheena's eyes.

"Who was that?" Sheena inquired.

"Ah, I'm sorry. That was just an acquaintance who wanted to talk a little bit," Zelos answered with a smile.

Sheena didn't believe him, but what reason would Zelos have to lie to her? He was hardly likely involved in some dark deeds.

"Nice that you're here," Zelos said now, and Sheena immediately had other problems again. To not get red was one of them. "You look beautiful today. But actually you're always looking beautiful."

"T … Thanks …" Sheena uttered with difficulty. She cleared her throat and tried to recover herself. "Do you know about the gala that's supposed to take place tomorrow evening in the branch of the Magy Corp?"

Zelos nodded. "Regal came by earlier and told me. We should only hope that they don't spend the amount of Gald on the gala they have earned by the selling of the refrigerators."

Sheena laughed quietly. "Let's hope for it."

The dinner Sebastian had cooked turned out to be delicious, but Sheena hadn't expected anything else. During dinner Zelos told her different things and made her laugh often. She was just glad that she herself didn't have to say that much because as it was lately the case when she was in his presence, it was difficult for her to remember how to form words.

All in all, the evening was just great. When it was eventually time for Sheena to leave Zelos accompanied her to her Rheaird.

"It was really a nice evening," Zelos remarked while smiling at Sheena.

"Yes," Sheena replied, her heart beating in a much too fast rhythm again as Zelos gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Good night," he uttered with a smile.

"Good … night …" Sheena said dizzily as she climbed on her Rheaird and flew away. During the flight she had to remind herself several times that she had to direct the flying machine because otherwise she would've flown a few times in the wrong direction.

Every time she thought of how Zelos had parted from her, her heart skipped a beat so that you could only come to one conclusion: She had fallen in love with him. Deeply.

* * *

><p>Well ... Isn't that nice? ^^<p>

But who was that visitor Zelos had? Dark blue cloak and sunglasses, doesn't that ring a bell? ;) Well, you'll soon find out anyway. ^^

You should look forward to the next chapter. I really love it, it's one of my favourites. xD And I think you'll like it, too. ^^

Ah, by the way, I would be happy about reviews. =)

To be continued ...


	5. Night of Realization

Phew, I finally managed to update ... First I had to go to several supermarkets to buy something (but I didn't get it -.-) and then our internet didn't work. Really great. -.- Fortunately it worked after some moments again. ^^

So, enjoy the next chapter, one of my favorites. =)

* * *

><p><strong>~ Chapter 4: Night of Realization ~<strong>

**„**_**Gib jedem Tag die Chance, der schönste deines Lebens zu werden."**_

_**("Give every day the chance to become the most beautiful one of your life.")**_

_**Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)**_

:::_**  
><strong>_

Faith and knowledge. If there isn't the one thing, the other one should be there. But what if you don't have the knowledge but can't produce any faith either? The faith that everything will end well after all … The faith that somebody up there had been thinking something … The faith that there even is someone up there.

Who thinks to know the answers to these questions is a fool. And who believes has hope. But when there's no hope there can't be any faith and least knowledge. Because knowledge arises from faith.

:::

The next evening was the gala. There were many people, mainly employees of the Magy Corp, but also some of the Lezareno Company, Renegades, nobles, businessmen from Tethe'alla and not least the heroes of the world unification.

An orchestra was playing quietly in the background, and champagne glasses and nibbles were constantly offered to the guests, so that everybody felt actually comfortable.

Only Sheena wasn't really able to amuse herself and relax. She hadn't seen Zelos yet and was constantly plucking nervously at her dress and her hair so that everything was perfect. She knew that it was actually pretty stupid how she was acting, but she just couldn't do anything against it.

"Sheena, calm down. You look great," suddenly a voice behind her sounded. When she turned around she saw Raine who was looking at her in amusement. "You're waiting for Zelos, right?"

Sheena blushed slightly and slowly nodded.

Raine was smiling, but she was looking pensive at the same time. "He's still acting strange, isn't he?"

"I wouldn't call it strange. Rather … mature, courteous and charming …"

"Woah, there's somebody deeply in love," Yuan uttered, coming towards them with a grin on his face.

"N-Nonsense …" Sheena murmured, red-faced.

"I hope you don't only love his new sides. There's after all no guarantee that he isn't the old one again soon," Raine said.

Sheena nodded. "I know. But it's enough for me to know that he can also be totally different if he wants to."

"Ah, over there's your beloved one," Yuan remarked, pointing at the end of the hall where Zelos was just talking to a man in a white suit.

"Whom is he talking to?" Raine wanted to know. "I have the feeling I have seen this man somewhere before …"

"That doesn't surprise me. That's Professor Caius Elytis; he's active in medical research and at the same time professor of this subject at the Academy of Palmacosta," Yuan answered. "However, I'm a little bit surprised that Zelos seems to know him because the professor can only hardly been seen anywhere else than the academy or his laboratories."

"Ah, I remember now where I have seen him before. He gave a lecture at the Academy of Palmacosta half a year ago about the meaning of the deoxyribonucleic acid. It was extremely interesting."

"What acid?" Sheena asked confusedly.

"The deoxyribonucleic acid, in short DNA, contains in an encoded form the genetic information and can be found in the cell nucleus, the mitochondria and the chloroplasts of eukaryotic organisms. The DNA consists of phosphate and sugar groups, also called deoxyribose, and the nitrogenous bases adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine. The first two belong to the purines and the latter two to the pyramidines. Furthermore, the DNA consists of two opposed, antiparallel polynucleotide strands and …"

"Raine, I'm really appreciating your excitement for this topic, but I didn't understand one single word," Sheena sighed.

"Oh …" Raine said, smiling apologetically. "I think I let myself get carried away once again …"

Yuan seemed to be amused but got serious again when he was looking in the direction of Zelos and the professor who were still talking to each other. "But still it's strange …"

"Maybe Zelos was at one of his lectures as well," Sheena assumed.

"That would surprise me pretty much. Zelos and lectures about highly complicated topics? That doesn't match," Yuan replied, shaking his head.

Raine nodded in agreement. "I have to say that it would astonish me as well. Although I have to admit that Zelos probably would understand quite a bit. After all he isn't unintelligent."

"Well … That's right. After all it was him who had the idea that solved our little problem with the mini-teleports. But still I'm of the opinion that he's nobody who goes to such lectures."

Zelos was now parting from the professor and came towards them. He greeted them cheerily and smiled at Sheena charmingly so that she got weak knees once again.

"How come you know Professor Elytis?" Yuan asked bluntly, looking expectantly at Zelos.

"You know that my sister Seles has an immunodeficiency, don't you? Professor Elytis is researching on medicine that could probably help her. Seles' doctor acquainted me with him," Zelos explained calmly.

"Ah, I see. Are there already first successes?" Raine wanted to know.

Zelos shook his head. "Not until now. But I have complete confidence in Professor Elytis. If somebody is able to find medicine that can help Seles, it's him."

"How is Seles right now?" Sheena inquired.

"Like always. She's still complaining on not being allowed to leave the abbey," Zelos sighed.

"It has to be terrible to be trapped in one place the whole time …" Sheena uttered.

"But the abbey's still the best place for her. She has everything she needs, and it's unlikely that something will happen to her there. However, if she lived with me, she could quickly be in danger. After all there are some persons who wouldn't have anything against me departing this life before my time."

"You mustn't say something like that, Zelos!" Sheena remarked, shocked.

"Well, but he's right. Even though he isn't it really anymore, many still see him as the Chosen, and there are some nuts who want to eliminate the Church of Martel and everybody who has something to do with it," Yuan commented.

"You're speaking of Infidelitas, right?" Regal asked, consorting with them.

"Infidelitas?" Sheena asked, having never heard of it before.

"A group of unbelievers whose aim it is to destroy the Church of Martel," Raine explained. "You probably heard that several priests and other clerics have been attacked or even abducted lately, haven't you?"

Sheena nodded.

"Supporters of Infidelitas are behind that. You should maybe get some bodyguards, Zelos," Yuan said, halfway joking, halfway serious.

"Don't worry, nothing will happen to me," Zelos uttered in a convinced tone.

But now that Sheena knew of this group she was afraid that something could happen to Zelos. As the former Chosen he had to stand after all at the top of the list of these people.

Genis was now coming towards them; he seemed to be having a good time because he was smiling. "Lloyd is having a hard time."

"How?" Raine wanted to know.

Genis pointed to the middle of the hall that had become a dance floor in the meantime. They were able to see Lloyd for a short time, dancing with Colette. "Not only did Colette already step on his feet several times, she's also tripping constantly. But although Colette has already asked him a few times to rather stop dancing, Lloyd doesn't want to give up."

"You can say about Lloyd what you want, but in some respects he can really be patient," Regal uttered.

"I'm surprised that you're not on the dance floor with Presea as well," Raine remarked teasingly.

The boy blushed slightly. "W-We already danced." His face was now deep red, and Sheena was glad that she seemingly wasn't the only one who was having this problem lately. "I'm just getting us something to drink. Ah, Raine, maybe you should dance with somebody as well. You're after all constantly complaining that you gained weight."

"Genis!" Raine exclaimed angrily, but her brother was already running away with a grin. "Such a rascal!"

The others were laughing.

"So, Raine, if you want to dance, I'm at your service," Yuan offered.

Raine thought about it for a few seconds, then she nodded eventually, and the two headed to the dance floor.

Regal sighed. "Typically Yuan. Only thinking about enjoying himself, and I'm left with the whole work. Well, I still have to do some things. See you later." He walked away and left Zelos and Sheena behind.

"Would you like to dance as well, Sheena?" Zelos asked.

Sheena nodded and took his hand. It was an incredible feeling to dance with him. It was almost as if there were only the two of them; Sheena didn't notice anything going on around them. While looking in Zelos' sparkling blue eyes she wished that the moment would never end.

However, the slow dance came to an end all too soon, and faster music was played.

"Do you want to take an airing?" Zelos inquired.

"Yes," Sheena answered.

They headed to a balcony. Just when Sheena was outside and a comfortable breeze encountered her she realized how hot she was. She walked towards the railing and watched the stars.

"Beautiful," Zelos uttered.

Sheena nodded. "Yes. There's really nothing nicer than a clear starry sky."

She suddenly felt Zelos' breath brushing her cheek. "I didn't mean the stars."

When Sheena turned around Zelos' face was only centimeters away from her own, and her heart was starting once again a marathon. She had to hang on to the railing when Zelos came even closer and she eventually felt his lips on hers, because her legs had suddenly problems carrying her.

Zelos put his arms around her and pulled her closer. Sheena was glad about that, on the one hand because she had a better footing that way, and on the other hand because she wanted to be as close as possible to Zelos.

"I love you, Sheena," Zelos breathed into her ear, and a comforting chill was running down her spine.

"I love you, too."

* * *

><p>I LOVE Raine in this chapter! xDDDD She's so great! I can really imagine her talking about such things as if talking about the weather. xDD<p>

Infidelitas, hehe. Once again you can see how much I like Latin. xD Infidelitas means 'unbelief' and it's really fitting. ^^

Haa, isn't the end romantic? Or rather slushy ... *cough* But it's not yet time for love, peace and harmony. xD The next chapters will be a little bit darker ... Hehehehe. *evil grin*

Ah, by the way, did you already notice that every chapter has 'night' in it? ^^ That is of course no coincidence. It's also no coincidence that the first chapter has the title 'Beginning of the Night'. (Maybe some of you can now imagine what the title of the last chapter is xD).

Don't be shy and review. =) I don't bite. ;)

To be continued ...


	6. Night of Doubts

**~ Chapter 5: Night of Doubts ~**

„_**Die Menschen glauben viel leichter eine Lüge, die sie schon hundertmal gehört haben, als eine Wahrheit, die ihnen völlig neu ist."**_

_**("People believe rather a lie they have already heard a hundred times than a truth which is completely new to them.")**_

_**Alfred Polgar (1873 – 1955)**_

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><strong>_

There's one thing in the world you're lost without: Trust. Nobody can manage life if they doesn't trust. It begins during infancy: You're trusting that your parents take good care of you, that they know what's best for you.

You also trust that the sun rises every morning, and that a new day begins. You trust that all the suffering you're experiencing at the moment will come to an end someday.

But once this trust is lost it's difficult to find it again.

:::

Sheena pushed her way through Meltokio. People cheered and celebrated everywhere so that the getting through was almost impossible.

Princess Hilda had married a rich nobleman and was now leaving Meltokio in a carriage with her husband because the two would live in Sylvarant. The whole thing was of course supposed to improve the relationship between Sylvarant and Tethe'alla a little bit.

So while the habitants of the city bid farewell to their princess Sheena was searching for Zelos who was certainly somewhere nearby. Thinking about seeing the red-haired in some minutes again, a smile spread on her face.

She hadn't been able to see him since the gala a week ago because she had literally been up to her neck in work. Many missions were by now escorts of some clerics who didn't feel safe any longer thanks to the actions of Infidelitas. So Sheena had much to do with supervising which ninja were on the move at the moment and which ninja were the most suitable for a certain mission. Because the higher the rank of the cleric was, the more experienced and reliable the group of ninja had to be to be able to constitute protection.

Thinking about the group that wanted to topple the Church of Martel, her smile faded away. She knew that Zelos was in danger, but he assured her again and again that he was able to take care of himself and that he didn't need any protection.

She found the red-haired eventually near the stairs leading to the market place, and all worries made way for an unruly joy. She hurried to get to him and got admittedly somewhat inconsiderate while elbowing her way towards him, but she didn't really care about that right now.

Seeing her, Zelos smiled and greeted her with a kiss. "I'll have to exchange some words with those guys of Infidelitas. It's not okay that you have to work that much because of them."

"It can't be changed …" Sheena said, the worry returning on her face. "Zelos …"

"Don't worry, Sheena. Nothing will happen to me."

Of course it didn't help in the slightest to diminish her worry about him, rather the contrary. Because he yielded up every kind of protection he became an even easier target.

"Let's go. Nothing great will happen anymore anyway," Zelos uttered.

Sheena nodded. But when they just wanted to take the stairs Sheena suddenly felt danger. She just wanted to point it out to Zelos when she saw that he was already drawing his sword to parry the attack of a black hooded figure in time. However, the assailant was wearing a necklace that surfaced during his fight with Zelos. It was a round plate with a big 'I'; a burning cross enclosed in it. Although Sheena had never seen something like that before, she was immediately certain whom they were dealing here with: Infidelitas.

She had known that something like this had to happen! But fortunately the city wards were now going to Zelos' rescue, albeit too late. The mysterious assailant was already clearing off, disappearing neatly in the mass so that the city wards soon had to give up their search.

"Is everything alright, Zelos?" Sheena asked worriedly.

"Yes, don't worry," Zelos answered, sighing.

"I told you they would attack you sooner or later! You need instant protection! Maybe I can …"

"No. I don't want to drag you into this," Zelos interrupted her, looking at her seriously. "Sheena … Maybe it would be better if you weren't around me the next time."

"But …" she disagreed.

He shook his head. "It's too dangerous."

The city wards accompanied Zelos to his mansion while Sheena followed him with her eyes, depressed. If only she were able to stay near him … But she accepted that Zelos didn't want to endanger her, and so she left Meltokio again. Reaching her Rheaird she thought about what she was supposed to do now. If she couldn't stay near Zelos, she wanted to do something for him at least. Something contributing to his protection …

She was shortly thinking about assigning some ninja with his protection, but everybody was already busy enough, and she couldn't spare anybody at the missions … But a few moments later she had already the next idea: the Renegades. They could certainly do something.

Sheena looked at her watch. It was shortly after six pm, so Yuan certainly wasn't in the branch of the Magy Corp anymore but already back in the base, probably in the one near Triet. Determined, she started her Rheaird and flew in the direction of the Triet desert.

The Renegades let her enter and left her then to her own devices. She wasn't unknown here any longer, and everybody knew that she wouldn't get up to something. So she walked through the corridors to Yuan's office. She heard even from afar two voices, and the closer she got, the more she slowed down to be able to understand what the two persons were talking about. One of the persons was undoubtedly Yuan, and the other voice had to belong to Raine.

"I ran the rule over Professor Elytis. You know what's strange?" Yuan was silent for some seconds. "Although he's allegedly been producing medicine for years, there's none medicine of his company known until now."

Professor Elytis? Wasn't that the man who was researching for a medicine for Seles' immunodeficiency?

"That means he isn't producing medicine at all? How does he finance his company then?" Raine wanted to know.

"I don't know. I'm only certain that they're not researching on medicine there but on something else … But the question is on what."

But if this Professor Elytis wasn't producing any medicine at all, what would then happen to Seles? Besides, Zelos had put his trust in this man!

"So everything's only a façade … But he still has to be doing something related to biology. Professor Elytis' lecture about the DNA was flawless and pretty detailed. You can only give such a lecture if you really have the knowledge about it."

Sheena had just reached the door and wanted to enter when Yuan said something that made her stop.

"Yes, I think so, too. And Zelos is somehow involved in it."

What did all of this have to do with Zelos? Just what were Yuan and Raine talking about?

She was hesitating for a moment, then she opened the door.

"Sheena?" Yuan looked uneasy. "Did you … hear us?"

Sheena stepped into his office where she found Raine sitting on the couch. "Yes. And I have some questions."

Raine sighed. "It would be better if you kept your questions to yourself for the time being. Right now we're not certain ourselves what's going on."

"I just want to know what this whole thing has to do with Zelos," Sheena uttered, not willing to give up that easily.

"As Raine already said, we don't know yet. Maybe we're totally wrong and our suspicion is without any reason," Yuan said, having closed the door to this office again and taking a seat behind his desk.

"What suspicion do you have then?" Sheena kept being persistent. "It's somehow concerning this Professor Elytis who is apparently doing something else than producing medicine in his laboratories; I've caught that much … But why do you think that Zelos could've something to do with it?"

"The sudden change of his personality … Nobody can change that fast; the old habits will always resurface. But it isn't that way with Zelos. He's keeping himself perfectly under control, and that's not normal," Raine explained. "I found it strange from the beginning, so I investigated a little bit. I found out that after your somewhat longer stay in Palmacosta and your reporting to the king, two men in dark blue cloaks with sunglasses approached Zelos …"

"Ah! Such a guy was recently at Zelos' home! Zelos said that he was an acquaintance …" Sheena interrupted Raine.

"The only question is of which kind this acquaintanceship is … He most likely isn't one of Zelos' former classmates," Raine said pensively. "In any case somebody watched those two men leading Zelos out of Meltokio. We don't know what happened then; however, according to the witness, Zelos didn't come back to Meltokio until late evening."

"And what does this tell us now?" Sheena wanted to know.

"We have reason to believe that this time period is the moment in which Zelos changed," Yuan explained. "Furthermore …" He took something out of his desk drawer, showing it to Sheena and Raine. "… these men are working for Professor Elytis."

Sheena looked at the photo Yuan was showing them. Professor Elytis could be seen on it in front of a white building, probably his laboratories, with two men in dark blue cloaks and sunglasses next to him.

"Hmm …" Raine murmured. "Interesting … But it doesn't help us much now either; it's just another clue that Zelos has more to do with Professor Elytis than he told us …"

"And if it was only about the medicine for Seles after all?" Sheena objected.

"That doesn't explain his strange behavior," Yuan replied.

"Hmm …" Sheena was glancing pensively at the photo. "Hey …" She took the photo from Yuan and had a closer look at it. "This necklace …" She pointed at the golden necklace that was hanging around the neck of one of the two unknown men. Though the plate couldn't be seen wholly it was enough for Sheena to recognize it. "A guy with exactly such a necklace attacked Zelos today!"

Yuan and Raine were having a closer look at the necklace now as well.

"That's the symbol for Infidelitas!" Raine uttered in surprise. "Does Professor Elytis belong to them as well?"

Yuan rubbed his head. "But if it is as Sheena says, and somebody of Infidelitas attacked Zelos today, it doesn't make any sense at all. We're assuming after all that Zelos and Professor Elytis are working together somehow."

Raine sighed. "That's right … We just have too little clues to really be able to say what's going on …"

"Exactly. You should stop interpreting something in such things. If Professor Elytis has a skeleton in his closet – okay. But you shouldn't drag Zelos into this as long as you don't have concrete proofs," Sheena said, standing up.

"Oh? And how do you explain that he changed so suddenly?" Yuan wanted to know.

"Don't know. He just wanted to change and did it. That's all."

"It's not that easy! But it's perspicuous that you don't want to accept that; with rose-colored glasses on your nose you just lose sight of the obvious!"

Before Sheena was able to spit back at him Raine intervened. "Stop it, you two. Sheena, believe me, we didn't want you to learn of our suspicion until we were really certain of it and had also proofs. But now everything is different, and you have to form your own opinion about all of this." She looked deeply into Sheena's eyes. "Please, Sheena, just follow one advise of me: Be wary in Zelos' company."

"Hmpf." Without another word Sheena left Yuan's office. She was completely upset and didn't even know anymore why she had come here in the first place. It was already night, and she only wanted to head home, go to bed and digest everything.

* * *

><p>Hehehe, a little bit confusing, isn't it? ^^ Does Professor Elytis belong to Infidelitas? Are Zelos and Professor Elytis working together? But why was Zelos then attacked by somebody of Infidelitas?<p>

But maybe Yuan's and Raine's theories are totally wrong anyway? Who knows ...

The darkness is slowly spreading and with it the danger ... Muahahaha. xD

To be continued ...


	7. Night of Murder

**~ Chapter 6: Night of Murder ~**

„_**Die Wissenschaft der Planung besteht darin, den Schwierigkeiten der Ausführung zuvorzukommen."**_

_**("The science of planning consists in preempting the difficulties of the execution.")**_

_**Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715 – 1747)**_

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Every person is someday confronted with the question: When, how, where and why will I die?

Death is in the cards for every living being since the hour of its birth. However, you aren't concerned with this question at the beginning; death isn't a topic that crosses your mind until you get older. But there's probably nobody who really bothers about it intensively, unless he's in a situation in which he has to expect death to come soon.

But in the end we can think about it as much as we want, we will never know when our time's up, and we will never be able to prevent death either. Because everybody dies someday.

:::

Sheena was lying on her bed and playing with her hair. It had already been three days since Zelos had been attacked and she had seen him for the last time. It had been three days since Raine and Yuan had told her of their suspicion.

She sat up with dash. Every time she thought about the conversation with the two she got angry. Just how could they assume that Zelos was working together with this Professor Elytis? There were no clues for that at all! Quite the contrary! There was even something militating against it, namely that Zelos had been attacked by Infidelitas whom Professor Elytis apparently belonged to.

Zelos' personality change had certainly another reason … Sheena was sure of it. Sighing, she lay down again. If only she were able to see Zelos … She missed him …

Suddenly Orochi rushed into her room which wasn't actually his way at all because he was usually always knocking on the door first. "Sheena!" He looked completely done. Something had to have happened.

She sat up quickly. Was maybe something wrong with Zelos? Had Infidelitas attacked him again and been more successful this time? Her heart tensed up at the thought of it. No, that just couldn't be! "W-What happened?"

Orochi was completely out of air and panting heavily. He had apparently run. "The king … is dead!"

At the first moment Sheena was relieved. So Zelos was fine. Just then she realized what Orochi had actually said and what it meant. "The king? But … how?"

"He was murdered," Orochi explained. "Details aren't known yet. The Renegades are examining the crime scene as we speak."

Sheena ran a hand through her hair. The death of the king was a disaster. It would cause a turmoil in Tethe'alla and eventually also in Sylvarant. Furthermore, Tethe'alla was now without government until Princess Hilda was crowned as the queen.

"But that isn't everything yet," Orochi continued. "Princess Hilda has disappeared. Her husband has been found dead as well."

"What?" Sheena whispered. Everything was spinning in her head. If Princess Hilda had disappeared what would then happen with the government of Tethe'alla?

"It's most probable that the one who murdered the king also murdered Princess Hilda's husband. But his actual aim should be the princess. She's in great danger," Orochi uttered.

"That's just a disaster!" Sheena stood up and paced aimlessly through the room. "The king is dead, the princess is missing …"

"Yes. We can only hope that we know soon who the murderer is and that the princess appears again. As long as she isn't there Zelos will have to reign."

"Zelos?" Sheena asked.

Orochi nodded. "As the former Chosen he has the highest rank right now."

"But Zelos is in danger! Infidelitas is after his life! If he ends up in the public eye now they will only have it even easier!"

Orochi rubbed his head. "However, Zelos seems to be pretty certain that he won't be attacked again. He wants to give a short speech in half an hour in which he explains everything to the citizens of Meltokio, and that seemingly without any protection because he has ordered almost all city wards to help the Renegades with the investigations and to search for Princess Hilda."

"What?" Sheena exclaimed angrily. "I can't believe this!" She rushed out of the house; Orochi followed her.

"Where do you want to go?" the ninja asked although he probably already knew the answer.

"What do you think? To Meltokio of course!" Sheena ran out of the village and leapt onto her Rheaird, landing minutes later in front of the gates to Meltokio.

Similar to three days ago when Princess Hilda and her husband had left the city the streets were crowded so that the getting through was almost impossible. The closer she got to the castle, the worse it got.

"Sheena!" suddenly somebody called.

She turned around and recognized Lloyd and the others who were elbowing their way to her.

"It's terrible, isn't it?" Colette asked, looking depressed. "First the king dies, and now the princess also disappeared …"

"And Zelos comes temporarily to power," Raine added, and Sheena felt immediately that she wanted to tell her something with that.

She could already imagine that Raine and certainly Yuan as well considered this a further clue that Zelos was involved in the whole thing. Next the two would probably claim that Zelos was the murderer of the king! If that was the case she was really disappointed in those two. Zelos would've never committed a murder, even less to come to power.

"Zelos should start with his speech any moment," Regal said, and indeed Zelos entered the balcony of the castle a few moments later.

"Dear citizens! As you probably already heard something terrible happened this night: The king was murdered in cold blood. But it's even worse; there's no trace of Princess Hilda at all, and her husband is dead as well. That suggests the assumption that somebody is after the royal family. That's why it should be the aim of all of us to find the princess as quick as possible and to get her out of harm's way. So I want to ask all of you to keep eyes and ears open and to let the city wards know every clue regarding the princess. As long as the princess hasn't been found I will temporarily take over the government affairs of Tethe'alla."

Sheena noticed that Raine was making a few notes on what Zelos was saying. Did she want to interpret something in that, too? She was slowly making a fool out of herself.

"At last I want to ask you to commemorate the late king," Zelos announced whereupon silence came.

After this minute of silence Zelos bowed and said: "Thank you very much." He disappeared into the interior of the castle again.

"I have to see Zelos," Sheena uttered, already elbowing her way to the castle.

"Sheena! Please don't forget what I advised you!" Raine cat-called at her, but Sheena ignored it.

She had finally reached the castle, but it was guarded by the city wards. Apparently Zelos hadn't foregone all protection after all.

"Let me in! I have to see Zelos!" she said.

"My apologies, we're not allowed to let anyone inside," one of the two guards explained.

"But it's important!" Sheena insisted.

The other guard shook his head. "No exceptions. We got strict instructions by the Chosen."

At this moment the door opened a little bit. "Let her in."

Sheena's heart jumped for joy when she recognized Zelos' voice. Without waiting for the guards to clear the way for her she squeezed past them into the castle, flinging her arms around Zelos' neck. "Zelos … Zelos …" she sobbed.

"Shh, calm down," Zelos said softly. "Everything's alright."

"Well, I wouldn't call it alright," Yuan's voice sounded. He was just walking towards them; some Renegades were following him. "We know now that the king was murdered with a long, sharp object, presumably a sword. However, there's no trace of the weapon used in the crime. Everything must have happened late in the night, and because there are no traces of a fight we assume that the king knew his murderer." Yuan was folding his arms in front of his chest. "He was stabbed treacherously from behind. He probably didn't even know what was happening to him because the heart was hit directly so that he must've been dead quickly."

"It's really terrible …" Zelos sighed. "Just who is capable of committing such a coward murder?"

Sheena noticed Yuan's look. He was glancing at Zelos with cold eyes. She couldn't believe it! He was really assuming that Zelos had committed the murder!

"Zelos, where were you this night between one and two A.M.?" Yuan asked directly.

"You're not suspecting me, are you?" Zelos wanted to know with a raised eyebrow. "Yuan, that's ridiculous!"

"We have to take everybody into consideration. Besides, the king knew his murderer and probably trusted him. So? Do you have an alibi or not?"

Zelos sighed. "Yes, I have an alibi. I was working at that time or rather I fell asleep during work; Sebastian can certainly confirm it."

"We will check it," Yuan replied before nodding to one of the Renegades who left the castle.

"Yuan, don't you think it's a little bit foolish? Zelos would never commit a murder!" Sheena uttered angrily.

"We will see. If his butler confirms the alibi, everything's alright."

Some moments later the Renegade came back and announced that Sebastian had confirmed Zelos' alibi and he thus couldn't be the murderer.

Sheena smiled triumphantly at Yuan who seemed to be unsatisfied. "With that Zelos' innocence is proofed clearly."

Yuan nodded reluctantly. "Yes. Very well, then we'll have to continue our search whether we want to or not …"

"I would recommend you to run the rule over the king's closest consultant. His name's Gregory. I always found him suspicious," Zelos said calmly.

"Thanks, we will keep it in mind," Yuan replied, leaving the castle with his Renegades.

Sheena hugged Zelos contentedly. "You being a murderer … Yuan really has strange ideas …"

Zelos nodded. "Yes."

* * *

><p>Muahahahaha, the first dead person. xDD It's slowly really getting dark, hehe. ^^<p>

Well, Zelos apparently seems to have an alibi. So he can't be the murderer ... can he? *grin*

And where is Princess Hilda? Will they be found soon?

And I'm always happy about reviews. =)

To be continued ...


	8. Night of Confusion

**~ Chapter 7: Night of Confusion ~**

„_**Das Gesicht eines Menschen erkennst du im Licht, seinen Charakter im Dunkeln."**_

_**("You see the face of a human in the light, his personality in the dark.")**_

_**Arabic saying**_

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><strong>_

Every individual is unique. Every individual has his own identity, something that can't be taken away by anybody. Even twins, who sometimes can't be told apart by their appearance, don't have identical identities.

But there's constant progress and humans, half-elves and elves use this for their selfish purposes. They treat the identities of other individuals with contempt and don't even shrink from copying it.

Like they didn't flinch from doing so with mine.

:::

Since the death of the king two weeks had passed. His murderer was still on the loose, and Princess Hilda hadn't reappeared yet either.

Zelos didn't have much time for Sheena because of all the government affairs, though she couldn't claim herself to be bored. Infidelitas was still active, and people who had something to do with the Church of Martel were still in danger. Even pilgrims had been abducted now just because they went on a pilgrimage according to the teachings of Martel.

So Sheena was glad when Zelos invited her one evening for dinner in his mansion again. They had seen each other too rarely lately, and Sheena had been looking forward to the evening the whole day so that she wished the most time that the sun would finally set.

When it was eventually the case she headed to Meltokio in no time at all. She was once again a little bit too early, but she didn't give a damn. She just wanted to see Zelos as quickly as possible, she didn't care about anything else.

She was just arriving at Zelos' mansion when the door was opened and Sebastian was pushed outside by Zelos.

"You're fired! Don't show your face here again!" Zelos exclaimed pretty angrily.

"But … Sir …" Sebastian stammered.

But Zelos just stared at him with cold eyes until Sebastian eventually left, hanging his head.

Sheena walked confusedly to Zelos. "What happened? Why did you fire Sebastian?"

"Sheena!" Zelos' facial expression changed from angry to happy. "I'm sorry that you had to see this. Sebastian turned out to be a thief, that's why I had no other choice than to fire him."

"Sebastian's supposed to be a thief? I can't imagine that … He's been working for you for so long," Sheena remarked.

"I didn't want to believe it at first either, but the proofs leave no doubts. I found a bag with several valuable objects I've been missing for quite some time in his room," Zelos sighed. "But let's not talk about this any longer, come in."

Sheena nodded and entered the mansion pensively. She couldn't believe by any stretch of the imagination that Sebastian had stolen anything. Furthermore, she had to think about how cold Zelos' eyes had been when he had looked at Sebastian … She had never seen him like that before.

So this evening Zelos was cooking, though there couldn't be discerned any differences between his and Sebastian's cooking. In spite of the distressing matter with Sebastian, a hilarious atmosphere reigned during dinner, and Sheena just enjoyed being in Zelos' company. But she still couldn't forget the previous occurrences, and so she eventually got on to it again.

"Did Sebastian actually defend himself?"

Zelos sighed. "Of course he did. He claimed that he didn't know how the bag got into his room and promised faithfully that he didn't steal anything. But after all everybody would've claimed that in his situation. I had to fire him; I don't have any trust in him anymore."

"Hmm …" Sheena murmured pensively.

Zelos stood up and walked around the table towards her. "Don't think about him any longer." He took her hand and pulled her up. "This evening belongs only to us two. I won't allow for another man to absorb your thoughts." He kissed softly her neck.

Sheena closed her eyes and flung her arms around Zelos' neck while his hand wandered under her shirt. They were moving slowly to the couch on which Zelos eventually lay Sheena. He didn't stop kissing her and slowly pushed her shirt over her shoulders.

But Sheena couldn't abandon herself to the moment wholeheartedly. Sebastian was still haunting her mind, then also Zelos' cold look, the death of the king, the conversation with Yuan and Raine, and their suspicion …

She sighed. "Zelos …"

"What is it?" he asked while kissing her collarbone.

"I … have too much on my mind …" Sheena said.

Zelos ran a hand through her hair. "I will see that you aren't able to think of anything else anymore than me."

She shook her head. "No, I think … I think I'm not ready yet … It's too quick for me, and so much happened lately …"

Zelos sat up. "Too quick, huh? You've been throwing yourself at me for weeks, and now it's too quick for you?" He leaned over her again, pressing her arms painfully onto the couch. "Too bad, because I won't wait any longer!"

"W-What's wrong with you? Let me go!" Sheena exclaimed, trying to free herself. Somehow she finally managed to push him away from her, and she ran out of the mansion. She rushed out of the city to her Rheaird with a racing heart.

She couldn't believe what had happened right now. That just wasn't Zelos anymore! He would've never hurt her … Just what was wrong with him? Were Yuan and Raine right after all?

While tears were running down her cheeks she flew in the direction of Iselia. She needed to speak with Raine. Maybe she had an explanation.

She was eventually landing outside of the little village and headed as quickly as possible to Raine's house. She noticed confusedly that the lights were still on. Though it wasn't even ten P.M. yet, Raine and Genis usually went to bed pretty early.

She knocked hurriedly on the door which was opened by a puzzled Raine. "Sheena? What …"

Sheena hugged her, sobbing. "Zelos … He …"

"Come in first, Sheena," Raine said softly. "And then you calm down and tell me what happened."

Sheena nodded and entered the house. She realized that Yuan was present as well. It didn't really surprise her, the two had probably searched for new clues for their theory.

Sheena sobbed quietly and tried to calm down while she told the two what had happened. She noticed how the two exchanged looks.

"I want to know what's wrong with Zelos …" Sheena said, glancing at the two expectantly.

Yuan eventually sighed. "We probably have an explanation. Raine." He nodded to the half-elf.

"Are you sure?"

Yuan nodded.

"Alright." She began to explain. "As you probably realized, we have the suspicion that Zelos caused the death of the king. However, he has a watertight alibi so that he can't have committed the murder theoretically."

"Theoretically?" Sheena asked.

Raine nodded. "Sebastian stated that he saw Zelos sitting in his study at the questionable time. However, after some requesting he said that one thing seemed strange to him. When he wanted to ask Zelos, who seemed to be sleeping, if he wanted something to eat or to drink he saw a bruise on his upper arm."

"So what?" Sheena wanted to know. "That's nothing unusual."

"The unusual thing is that this bruise had mysteriously disappeared six hours later, Sebastian is sure of it," Yuan explained. "And we believe him."

"But … How could this bruise disappear?" Sheena asked.

"We wondered about that as well. But we didn't have an explanation, and that's why we wanted to follow another trace first. So I started working in the laboratories of Professor Elytis, hoping to find something there," Raine uttered.

Sheena looked at her expectantly. "Were you successful?"

Raine nodded. "I found strange reports that don't have anything to do with medicine at all." She walked to a shelf and took out a file. She showed it to Sheena, but she couldn't make head or tail out of all the technical terms.

"What's written in there?"

"This report describes the process of how to create a body artificially and to give it a personality," Raine explained. She was looking at Sheena several moments. "Sheena … We are suspecting that the Zelos we are dealing with right now is in reality … Zelos' clone."

* * *

><p>Muahahahahaha! xD<p>

Now you know what's going on. ^^ But where is the real Zelos? And will they find him?

To be continued ...


	9. Night of Truth

**~ Chapter 8: Night of Truth ~**

„_**Wir suchen die Wahrheit, finden wollen wir sie aber nur dort, wo es uns beliebt."**_

_**("We're searching for the truth, but we only want to find it where we like to.")**_

_**Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830 – 1916)**_

:::_**  
><strong>_

If your completely alone you're having many thoughts. Thoughts about life itself, about certain topics … Truth for example. What is truth actually? Is there absolute truth? How much truth can one person bear?

Truth is a very complex topic with many questions to which there are no answers. But still you never stop to think about it. What's the truth and what's a lie …

Is my existence perhaps also a lie? I don't know … I don't know about so many things anymore …

:::

"A … clone?" Sheena uttered unbelievingly. "You mean … a genetically identical copy … of Zelos?"

"That would at least explain everything. Professor Elytis and his men abducted Zelos and cloned his body and his memories. Then they implanted a personality conforming to their wishes into the clone. After that they made the clone take Zelos' place. That explains the sudden change of his personality," Yuan commented.

"It would also explain the disappearance of the bruise. Those people brought the real Zelos in his mansion that night and placed him in the study. However, he wasn't sleeping as Sebastian was assuming but probably unconscious. In the meantime, Zelos' clone could kill the king as if he had all the time in the world because he had apparently an alibi. He returned to the mansion later, and the real Zelos was taken again somewhere else," Raine added.

"I … I can't believe this! That would mean … that everything was just a lie … All this time …" Sheena was burying her face in her hands, sobbing. "Where … Where is the real Zelos?"

"We don't know yet. But we're certain that he's still alive. They probably don't want to kill him because they could need his organs if something happens to the clone," Yuan answered.

Sniffling, Sheena looked at Raine and Yuan. "There's one thing I don't quite understand if everything is as you say … Professor Elytis and his men belong to Infidelitas … Why didn't they kill Zelos but cloned him? And why was his clone then attacked by Infidelitas?"

"We also wondered about that. We came to the conclusion that Infidelitas don't just want to destroy the Church of Martel but also want to seize power over Tethe'alla. However, it would've been difficult to just topple the king because the people would've struggled against this new regiment. So they needed somebody the people knew and trusted," Raine explained.

"Why didn't they just clone the king or Princess Hilda then? Wouldn't that have been easier?" Sheena wanted to know.

Yuan nodded. "Theoretically yes. We're assuming that they didn't take the king because he was too old. So the clone wouldn't have had an all too long lifespan either. They probably didn't take Princess Hilda because she's a woman and many people are convinced that a woman shouldn't have power. Thus the next highest ranking person was Zelos."

"Regarding the assault on the clone by Infidelitas … It was presumably supposed to be a diversion. I think it didn't slip the clone's attention that we were watching him, and he wanted to confuse us by that," Raine uttered.

"And he was successful with that at the beginning," Yuan said. "In any case we have to act now carefully. Infidelitas is not an organization to be trifled with; they already proved to be rogue. Raine, you should stop working in the laboratories, it's too dangerous if you stay there any longer."

Raine shook her head. "If I resign now just like that Professor Elytis will become even more suspicious. He already seems to be wary of me anyway."

"Damn it …" Yuan cursed while folding his arms. "Fine, then we'll have to make the best of the situation. Maybe you can somehow find out where they're keeping Zelos. In the meantime, I will continue trying to find Princess Hilda. She's at the moment the only reason why Infidelitas didn't really start with their takeover yet."

"I don't understand that," Sheena remarked. "How does the princess hinder them from doing so?"

"As long as she's alive, she's the rightful heiress to the throne, and thus Zelos' clone doesn't have all the power yet because the people will always wait for the return of Princess Hilda. Furthermore, the princess could know something that's bad for Infidelitas," Raine explained.

"Then why don't they just claim that the princess is dead?" Sheena wanted to know.

"Without having a corpse or other proofs for it? The people would become suspicious then. Besides, Infidelitas can use the love of the people for their princess to find her. Zelos' clone appealed to the public to do so in his speech, do you remember?" Yuan asked.

Sheena nodded.

At that moment a yawning Genis came out of his sleeping room. "Huh? Yuan, Sheena, what are you …" He yawned again. "… doing here at this time?" He stretched himself. "Hm? Sheena, did you cry?"

She quickly wiped away the last tears and shook her head. "No, I …"

"Love problems with Zelos, what?" Genis said, sighing. "But what is Yuan doing here then?"

Raine looked at her brother with annoyance. "Genis, don't be so curious. I have also a private life, you know. And now you'll go to bed again like a good child."

"Wha … What? Does that mean you and Yuan …?"

"No comment," Raine sighed while shoving her brother to his sleeping room.

"But I'm your brother!" Genis objected.

"And I'm a caring sister who wants to make sure that her little brother gets enough sleep. Good night!" She shoved her brother in his room and closed the door. She turned to Yuan and Sheena. "You should go now. Genis won't sleep before that."

The two nodded and left the house. Sheena wished Yuan and Raine a good night and then flew home with her Rheaird, the thoughts spinning over in her head. However, she tried to push all of it back to be able to concentrate on the flight.

When she was eventually lying in her bed she let the thoughts cross her mind disorderly. Zelos a clone, the real Zelos somewhere trapped …

Once again tears were forming in her eyes. Everything had been a lie. Everything Zelos' clone had told her the last weeks. And she fell for him that easily! She didn't even wonder about Zelos' behavior being suddenly so different … She had really worn rose-colored glasses like Yuan had already said … She had been so blind.

She turned to the side while tears were running over her face. How could she ever warrant to Zelos that she had fallen in love with his clone while he was being trapped somewhere and suffering? She was hating herself for it.

What would she give now to see Zelos' presumptuous smirk that had always annoyed her so much … By now she could barely remember it … What would she give to hear one of his stupid pick-up lines that had always upset her … What would she give to just be with him …

She missed him … She missed the real Zelos … No matter how idiotic he sometimes acted, no matter how pretentious he sometimes was … He was real. And Sheena realized at this moment that his words had been real as well. He had never lied to her … Not even as she suspected him of stealing her underwear when they were in Palmacosta …

A new flush of big tears was rolling over her face. If only she had already known back then what was now so clear to her … If only she had already known back then that she loved him despite everything …

"Zelos … I'm so sorry … Please hang on … We'll find you, I promise …" She thought to feel something brush over her face. She smiled. She had the feeling that Zelos was with her.

* * *

><p>Well, everything makes sense now, doesn't it? ^^<p>

Aww, I like the scene with Genis. xDD There will be also another one that's even cooler. *grin*

Yeah, the end is somehow ... I don't know ... Sheena is a little bit OOC here again, I think. But I had to make her realize somehow that she loves the real Zelos ... That's more or less the weak point of this story because I didn't think about that in the beginning. xD I was so obsessed with the clone and Sheena falling in love with him that I forgot that she had to fall in love with the real Zelos as well. ^^"

But well, I hope you can forgive me for that. ^^

To be continued ...


	10. Night of Dangers

**~ Chapter 9: Night of Dangers ~**

„_**Ein Tor erkennt, was er in Händen hält, als trefflich erst, wenn es verloren ist."**_

_**("A fool recognizes what he's holding in his hands as splendid not until it's lost.")**_

_**Sophokles (496 – 406/ 405 BC)**_

:::_**  
><strong>_

In situations of danger, when you're facing death, you're having a tendency of regretting certain things you did. You're regretting for example to not have been more generous or friendly, to even have left the bed.

You're in a situation in which you think that you won't be able to still change the things you're regretting. And the ones who get a second chance after all and would be able to change everything, often don't do it.

I'm just regretting that I have never been able to confess my feelings to the woman I love, and I know that it would be the first thing I would do if I got the opportunity to do so.

:::

The next day Sheena was anxious all the time. She didn't really know what to do. She couldn't go to Meltokio, this much was certain. Fortunately Zelos' clone wouldn't get suspicious if she didn't contacted him after the occurrences of the last evening.

Yuan and Raine were both busy with finding Zelos and Princess Hilda so that she would've been only in their way. And apart from them nobody knew about all of this …

It drove Sheena crazy to not be able to do anything. But no matter how much she tried to hide it, it was useless.

"Sheena, you don't seem to be fine," Igaguri uttered. "You've been unsettled the whole day. Are you waiting for something?"

Of course she was waiting. She was waiting for good news to come … or bad news. Sheena had had a bad feeling since she had gotten up. Something would still happen, she was sure of it. "It's nothing …" How much would she have liked to tell her grandfather about everything, but she would've only endangered him unnecessarily.

Igaguri sighed. "You know that you can tell me everything, don't you?"

Sheena nodded. "I know …" She stood up. "I think I'll go train a little bit now …" She left the house and headed to the nearby Gaoracchia Forest. She was fighting against some weak monsters, but realized soon that it didn't help to diminish her anxiety.

It was already evening, and she just wanted to return to Mizuho when she saw pillars of smoke rising from the village.

"No!" Sheena whispered unbelievingly as she ran back to the village as fast as she could.

Mizuho was ablaze, and Sheena could barely see anything through the thick smoke. Coughing, she broke her way through the village. She saw many persons lying on the ground; however, not all of them had died because of the fire but also by stabbing weapons.

While she was searching for survivors tears were running down her cheeks. Just why? Why did this have to happen? She reached now her house that was totally demolished and surrounded by flames. Suddenly she saw a hand sticking out of the ruins. "Grand … father … Grandfather!" She already wanted to run into the flames in defiance of all reason to somehow get her grandfather out of the ruins although he had to be already dead, but somebody clutched her arm.

"Sheena! You have to get out of here!" It was Orochi.

"But … grandfather …" Sheena sobbed.

"He's already dead! But you have to get out of here, they're after you!" Orochi pulled her to her Rheaird. "Fly away! Seek shelter somewhere!"

"But …"

"No but! Sheena, hurry!" Orochi urged her to get on her Rheaird which he started immediately so that it lifted off.

Sheena was looking back at Orochi. The smoke blocked her view a little bit, but she could clearly see a sword piercing through Orochi from behind.

"Noooooooooo!" Sheena screamed.

The smoke cleared for a moment, and she saw Zelos' clone slowly pulling the sword out of Orochi's body and looking at her with cold eyes.

Just at this moment she realized why all of this had happened. Zelos' clone had somehow found out that she knew about him and wanted to kill her – one further proof that he didn't feel anything for her and had been lying all the time. And if he knew that she knew about his secret he also had to know that Yuan and Raine knew it as well …

She directed her Rheaird to the Base of the Renegades. She had to warn Yuan as quickly as possible. But when she arrived at the base she had to realize that she was too late. The whole base was in ruins; it had probably exploded.

"No … That mustn't be …" She was running through the ruins. Yuan couldn't be dead … Without him and Raine she would never find Zelos! Her heart was beating a little bit faster when she finally found the half-elf. She turned him around carefully and noticed with relief that he was still breathing and didn't seem to be hurt all too badly. He was just unconscious.

"Yuan!" She slapped him a few times whereupon he slowly regained consciousness.

"What …"

"We have to warn Raine! Zelos' clone knows that we know about him!" Sheena uttered.

For one moment he still didn't seem to be fully awake, then Yuan suddenly sat up straight. "Raine is in the laboratories of Professor Elytis! We have to hurry!"

The laboratories of Professor Elytis were near Sybak which wasn't really surprising; Sybak was after all the city of research. They could only hope that they weren't too late and that Professor Elytis hadn't done anything to Raine yet. They entered the building with drawn weapons. They didn't have to expect really strong enemies here after all because there were mostly only scientists who couldn't fight.

"Where is Professor Elytis?" Yuan asked one of the employees while pressing him against the wall.

"T-There," he uttered with some effort, pointing at a door on the right.

Yuan and Sheena rushed into the room that was full with strange machines. Professor Elytis was just standing in front of a machine resembling two longish glass cases and typing something in.

"Raine!" Yuan exclaimed, and just now Sheena saw her lying in one of the glass cases whereupon she was able to imagine what Professor Elytis was planning on doing with her: He wanted to clone her.

Yuan was rushing towards Professor Elytis who was totally surprised and not able to fight back in time. Yuan had hit his head with his weapon so that he was falling unconscious. Even though Yuan would've probably liked to do so, it would've been unwise to kill Professor Elytis because he could probably tell them where Zelos was.

So while Yuan was typing like mad on the keyboard of the glass case to somehow get the glass lid open, Sheena shackled the professor with a rope she had found nearby.

"Ah, damn it all!" Yuan cursed before eventually destroying the glass with his weapon to finally get the unconscious Raine out of the machine. He laid her softly on the ground and brushed some strands of hair out of her face by which she eventually woke up.

She looked confusedly at Yuan. "Yuan …?" Then she seemed to notice the small cutting wounds he had gotten from the explosion of the base. "You're hurt!" She sat up and apparently wanted to heal him, but Yuan clutched her hands.

"That's not important now. Is everything alright with you? Did this guy do anything to you?"

"He injected me with some narcotic fluid … He wanted to clone me …" Raine uttered.

"We were able to prevent that," Sheena piped up.

"Fortunately …" Raine sighed. Then she looked at Yuan and Sheena. "You were also attacked, weren't you?"

"The base in Triet doesn't exist anymore. I assume that the one in Flanoir isn't standing anymore either. Damn it, so many of my men lost their lives!" Yuan cursed.

Sheena looked at the ground, depressed. "Mizuho is in ruins … So many died just because of me!"

"It's not your fault, Sheena. If somebody should be blamed it's us. We should've acted more carefully," Raine said. "Professor Elytis remembered that he saw me together with Yuan at the gala. Because Infidelitas was already assuming that Yuan was suspecting something it was clear to Professor Elytis that I must've been the one who stole the file by which he could conclude that we both knew about the clone."

"But how did Zelos' clone knew then that I know his secret as well?" Sheena wanted to know.

"Because we watched you and saw you flying to Iselia last night," a voice sounded. Zelos' clone was entering the room. "It was really stupid of you to come here. Now I will kill all three of you at once, and nobody will get to know about my secret."

"We will see!" Yuan rushed towards the clone and attacked him. But his opponent was very agile so that Yuan wasn't really successful.

Sheena had just decided to come to Yuan's rescue after she had reminded herself several times that it wasn't Zelos but his clone, when somebody else ran into the room and helped Yuan in the battle against the clone.

"Regal!" Yuan exclaimed in surprise.

"Hmpf," Zelos' clone uttered. "I didn't expect that." He jumped over Yuan and Regal and ran away.

Yuan and Regal followed him but came back again after a short time.

"He's gone. Damn it!" Yuan hit the wall with his fist. "Well, whatever … We should blow up this place, and after that we should disappear from here quickly."

They activated the self-destruct mechanism and took the shackled Professor Elytis who was still unconscious. The other scientists had already fled so that nobody was hurt when the laboratories exploded.

"Where do we go now?" Sheena wanted to know.

"I would like to get some things," Yuan answered. "So we should head to the branch of the Magy Corp."

Regal shook his head. "Destroyed."

"Damn it!" Yuan cursed once again. "Fortunately nobody worked there today …"

"That's a disaster! Just now that Sylvarant had finally an economic revival … Without the Magy Corp it will soon come to an end …" Sheena remarked gloomily.

"Hmm … Maybe Infidelitas planned to destroy the Magy Corp anyway," Raine uttered pensively.

"What do you mean?" Yuan wanted to know.

"We know that they want the power over Tethe'alla, and they almost managed to do so as well. But these people certainly aren't satisfied with only one part of the world. And the easiest method to control Sylvarant as well is to make them dependent on Tethe'alla."

"I see. So they also killed two birds with one stone. On the one hand they prevented Sylvarant's economic revival, and on the other hand they took a refuge possibility from us," Yuan sighed.

"Though I understand that we should leave here soon, could you please explain me roughly what's going on? My current knowledge amounts to Professor Elytis not producing any medicine and doing something different in his laboratories, Zelos somehow being involved in all of this and apparently our enemy, and the whole thing having something to do with Infidelitas as well," Regal uttered.

"That's not Zelos. It's his clone Professor Elytis and his men – all belonging to Infidelitas – created. The real Zelos is trapped somewhere, but we don't know where," Raine explained shortly.

"I see," Regal answered.

"But how did you know that you would find us here?" Sheena wanted to know.

"I didn't know that. I just followed Zelos … um … his clone who was looking around in the ruins of the Triet base and apparently didn't find what he was looking for."

"Me," Yuan sighed. He rubbed his head. "We really have some problems now … We have barely a place left where we're really safe from Infidelitas. In any case we should avoid the areas around Iselia, Triet, Flanoir, Mizuho, Palmacosta, Sybak and Meltokio."

"But what about Genis and the others? Don't you think it would be the safest to let them in on this and take them along? I don't want them to hurt Genis just to get to me," Raine uttered.

Sheena nodded. "I agree with Raine. We can only survive this together."

"Alright. But we should hurry. Regal and Sheena take the professor along and fly to Ozette to get Presea, and Raine and I will get Genis, Lloyd and Colette. But we shouldn't tell them yet what's going on; we should do that when we're in a safe place," Yuan said.

"You have one on your mind, haven't you?" Raine asked.

Yuan nodded. "That's right. We'll meet in Exire."

* * *

><p>Poor Sheena ... I'm really letting her suffer. ^^"<p>

I like the Raine-rescue-scene. ^-^ Especially since Yuan is so desperate to get her out of there. *grin*

I thought about who should come to their rescue when Zelos' clone attacked, and I thought Regal would be the most fitting person ... Though I don't really like him ...

Ok, here's a short explanation why they should avoid the mentioned places:

Iselia = Raine's home

Triet = there was one of the bases

Flanoir = there was the other base

Mizuho = Sheena's home

Palmacosta = there was the branch of the Magy Corp

Sybak = there were Professor Elytis' laboratories

Meltokio = that's the 'HQ' of the enemy xD

Those are the places were Zelos' clone and Infidelitas would most likely search for them first, and thus they're dangerous.

So ... Now they have Professor Elytis as a captive. Maybe they can find out with his help where the real Zelos is?

To be continued ...


	11. Night of Dreams

**~ Chapter 10: Night of Dreams ~**

„_**Die Erinnerungen verschönern das Leben, aber das Vergessen allein macht es erträglich."**_

_**("Memories beautify life, but oblivion alone makes it endurable.")**_

_**Honoré de Balzac (1799 – 1850)**_

:::_**  
><strong>_

Sometimes it's difficult to tell dream and reality apart. For example, you wake up and don't know anymore whether you just dreamt to have gotten up in the middle of the night or whether it really was that way. Or you're experiencing a situation which is so beautiful that you're wondering if it maybe is a just a dream after all.

Lately I often don't know anymore what's a dream and what's reality although I should be capable more than anybody else to be able to tell them apart. After all, everything where I'm not trapped in a dark room must inevitably be a dream.

But still … Sometimes I really have the feeling to be somewhere else … Near her.

:::

"Where is Zelos?" Yuan asked the bound Professor Elytis.

But he was remaining silent as he had also been the last two hours they had already spent in Exire which was now uninhabited. After they had explained everything to the others the professor had finally woken up; however, he had refused to tell them anything.

"It's useless, Yuan," Raine sighed. "He won't tell us anything."

Sheena pushed Yuan away and bend angrily down to Professor Elytis. "Tell us where Zelos is!"

But the professor continued being silent. Out of rage Sheena wanted to slap him fiercely, but Regal clutched her hand.

"Stop it, Sheena. That won't help either."

"But we have to find Zelos …" she sobbed.

Lloyd put a hand on her shoulder. "We'll find him, you can bet your life on it."

"Yeah, we won't let him down," Genis agreed.

"Do you still know, Sheena? Dwarven Vow number seven: Goodness and love will always win," Colette tried to cheer her up.

"Ahh, this Dwarven Vow is so slushy …" Lloyd complained. "Couldn't you have rather taken … the eleventh?"

"'Lying is the first step down the path of thievery'? What does that have to do with our current situation?" Genis asked, sighing. "It's so typical of you, Lloyd."

"H-Hey!"

Sheena smiled. "Thank you, guys. You're right. We will find Zelos, no matter if this guy tells us where he is or not."

They left the room in which Professor Elytis was bound to a chair and headed to the living-room of the somewhat dusty house.

"I think it's time for some of us to go to bed now," Raine remarked. "It's after all already late." She looked at Genis, Presea, Lloyd and Colette.

"What about you, Raine?" Genis wanted to know.

"I will still stay up for some time."

Regal stretched himself. "I think I'll also go to bed."

"Me too," Sheena said.

"Eh? Then only Yuan and Raine will still be awake … Is there something going on between you two after all?" Genis asked confusedly.

"No comment, Genis," Raine replied, shoving her brother once again into his room while Lloyd, Colette and Presea went ahead.

"But … But … I want to know about iiiit!"

Raine closed the door behind Genis and sighed.

"Good night," Regal and Sheena said, heading to their respective rooms.

Sheena was falling asleep pretty soon; she was just too tired. She dreamt of her stay in Palmacosta together with Zelos. While Neil had explained the current situation to them Zelos had been bored so that he had started to imitate Neil, who was standing with his back to them, in his gesturing. Though Sheena had found it childish she had barely been able to refrain from laughing.

However, the image suddenly changed, and she was in the burning Mizuho where she found only corpses and ruins. When Orochi was then killed by Zelos' clone as well, she screamed her head off and woke up, drenched in sweat.

Tears were running down her cheeks. So many had died … And all because of her … But she wouldn't allow for Infidelitas to continue doing what they wanted. She would free Zelos and stop his clone.

Sheena lay down again. If only they knew where Zelos was … With this thought she fell asleep again.

She found herself in complete darkness. There was not even a single bit of light. Only when a door opened with a squeak light found its way into the darkness.

Sheena could now see that she was in a jail or something similar. She noticed a motion at her right and recognized a person who was bound to the wall with iron shackles and averting their face from the light. She recognized immediately who it was: Zelos.

She tried to speak to him, but no sound was leaving her lips. She tried to touch him, but her hand was just going through him. What was going on? Was this still a normal dream?

Zelos' clone entered now the jail. He was smiling at Zelos with cold eyes. "Your friends seem to think they could hide from me. But I know exactly where they are. In some hours Exire won't exist anymore." He knelt down in front of Zelos and turned his face towards him. "And then your friends won't anymore either. Though it's a pity that our beloved professor will then die as well, some sacrifices have to be made."

Zelos held his eyes closed; the light would've probably caused him too much pain if he had opened them because he was the most time presumably in complete darkness. "They will somehow survive and discomfit you."

The clone stood up. "You're still having hope, what? I wouldn't have thought it possible after you have already been here for five weeks. But it will soon fade away. Even if your friends should survive, they will never get the idea that you have been right under their noses." He smiled disdainfully. "It's the best hiding spot."

"We will see," Zelos replied.

The clone left again, and when the door closed all light disappeared.

Sheena suddenly woke up, panting heavily. She stood up with a flounce and left her room. She had to warn the others! They weren't safe here anymore! She rushed into the rooms of the others without wasting much thought on knocking on the doors and announced loudly that they had to wake up and pack everything important as soon as possible.

Lloyd yawned and looked at her questioningly. "What's wrong?"

"Zelos' clone knows that we're in Exire! Quick, hurry!"

"Calm down, Sheena. How do you want to know?" Regal asked tiredly.

"I had a dream! Well … I'm not sure if it really was a dream … I had the feeling to really be there. Zelos is being trapped in a jail or something like that, and his clone told him that he knows where we are and that Exire won't exist anymore in a few hours!" Sheena explained quickly.

"It was just a dream, Sheena," Yuan yawned. "The whole thing just stirred you up, and it's also understandable, but …"

"I'm sure that it wasn't a normal dream!" Sheena insisted. "I felt so … light and besides, I could neither say anything nor touch Zelos! I was almost like a ghost …"

"Hmm … That could've been some sort of out-of-body experience …" Raine murmured pensively. "We should rather err on the side of caution and listen to Sheena."

Yuan shook his head, sighing. "Very well."

They quickly packed their things and flew away with the Rheairds. They had just been flying for some minutes when they heard a loud bang behind them and a weak shockwave almost tossed them from the flying machines. When they turned around Exire didn't exist anymore.

"Woah! I think we own Sheena our lives," Genis remarked in shock.

"Indeed … We're indebted to you, Sheena," Yuan stated.

"Yeah … But if I hadn't had this dream or whatever it was …" Sheena uttered.

"But how could Zelos' clone know that we're in Exire?" Colette asked as they were landing in a forested area nearby.

"I think there's only one explanation for that: him." Yuan clapped Professor Elytis, who still preferred to keep silent, on the shoulder. "He must have a tracking device or something like that with him."

"The only question is where," Regal said.

"It doesn't matter," Sheena remarked. "We don't need him anymore. I know where Zelos is."

"Oh, then we'll just tie him to a tree and leave him here," Genis suggested.

Though Yuan looked as though he would've rather done something else to the professor he didn't say anything, and so they followed Genis' suggestion and started their Rheairds after that.

"It really is cruel, isn't it?" Colette said. "They wanted to let the professor die with us although he belongs to them …"

"Yeah, with enemies like these, who needs friends?" Lloyd remarked.

"You mean: With friends like these, who needs enemies," Genis sighed. "Although I doubt that they're all friends with each other …"

Lloyd made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "That's what I said."

"Where do we go now?" Presea wanted to know.

"Zelos' clone said that Zelos was the whole time under our noses," Sheena explained. "So he's probably trapped in Meltokio, maybe even in his own mansion."

"But you said he's trapped in a jail or something like that. Does Zelos' mansion have a jail?" Lloyd asked.

"Maybe not a jail, but certainly a cellar," Sheena replied.

"However, we can't go to Meltokio just like that. We need a plan; too much went already wrong anyway," Yuan uttered.

"So where do we go now? We're slowly running out of places in which we're really safe," Regal said.

"Heimdall."

Raine and Genis looked at Yuan in surprise.

"But half-elves still aren't allowed to enter Heimdall!" Genis objected.

"Leave that to me. The elder will grant us access. Besides, the elves will probably like to help us as soon as they get to know that Zelos' clone killed the king. They were very loyal to the king," Yuan commented.

"Alright, then let's go to Heimdall!" Lloyd exclaimed enthusiastically whereupon everybody just sighed because they knew that he would be bored again in less than half an hour anyway.

* * *

><p>I like the scene with Genis and Raine. xDD<p>

And I love Lloyd. xD You can make fun of him so easily! xDD

Well, apparently dreams can save lives. xD Though it really was something like an out-of-body experience. ^^

By the way, it's save to assume that Professor Elytis won't live for that long anymore. Because his 'friends' will send another rocket (or whatever they used to blow up Exire; I haven't thought about that xD) because his tracking device still works. xD

So, next destination: Heimdall. ^^

To be continued ...


	12. Night of Rescue

**~ Chapter 11: Night of Rescue ~**

„_**Schmerz und Freude liegen in einer Schale; ihre Mischung ist der Menschen Los."**_

_**("Pain and joy are lying in one bowl; its mixture is humans' fate."**_

_**Johann Gottfried Seume (1763 – 1810)**_

:::_**  
><strong>_

If there's something nobody can control it's fortune and misfortune. Sometimes you have the one thing, sometimes the other thing, sometimes it's balancing each other.

Precisely because you can't know when you'll have fortune or misfortune that you have to hope.

Even if I have been for quite some time in a situation which seems to be unpromising, I still haven't given up hope yet. I had been misfortunate for the last weeks, so why shouldn't today be the day I will be fortunate?

The day they come to rescue me …

:::

Yuan was proved right. The elder granted them access even though he didn't seem to be really thrilled. However, apparently Yuan had helped him in the past somehow and still owed him for that. But when he learned that Zelos' clone had killed the king and Infidelitas was just seizing power, his subtle hostility disappeared completely, and he asked them to come with him.

He led them to his house where they found a girl with long blonde hair in plain clothes. In any case she was no elf, that much could be seen immediately. She was looking at the guests in fear and throwing a questioning glance at the elder.

Sheena suddenly had the feeling to know the girl. The longer she looked at her, the more she saw a certain resemblance to … "Princess Hilda?"

The elder nodded. "We found her a week ago completely exhausted near the Ymir Forest. We first wanted to bring her to Meltokio, but she implored us to not do so. She said the true danger is in Meltokio."

"The people who killed my husband made the mistake to talk too much. They told me lively that the Chosen who's in Meltokio right now is in reality just a clone and that the real Chosen is being trapped," Princess Hilda explained. "Of course they thought I would die, but I was able to escape from them."

"Then we're lucky that they didn't search for you here yet," Lloyd said.

"Oh, there already were some city wards from Meltokio. But we hid the princess well; they couldn't find her," the elder replied.

"Then it would probably be the safest if Princess Hilda continued staying here. In the meantime, we should think about what to do next. Though we know now where Zelos is being kept Meltokio is very dangerous at the moment. I wouldn't be surprised if the clone asked the citizens to search for us and to keep their eyes open," Yuan uttered. He thought for some moments. "Alright, we'll do it like this: We sneak into Meltokio through the catacombs at night. To not be recognized immediately we should wear dark cloaks with hoods."

"Let's assume we manage to reach Zelos' mansion without being noticed, how do we get inside?" Raine wanted to know. "Doors and windows will hardly likely be open, and it would cause too much noise to gain entrance forcefully."

"Sebastian! If somebody knows how we can get into the mansion unnoticeably, then it's him. He certainly knows of a secret passage, and he probably also knows where the cellar is in which Zelos is being kept," Sheena answered.

"Do you know where Sebastian lives?" Regal asked.

"No …" Sheena admitted, sighing.

"But I know," Yuan said. "I ran the rule over Sebastian because I wanted to know if he maybe has something to do with Infidelitas as well, but that doesn't seem to be the case."

"Well, then our plan is set, isn't it? We sneak into Meltokio, search for Sebastian, enter the mansion, free Zelos, and knock his clone upside the head, right?" Lloyd asked, full of beans.

"It's not that easy. Even if we kill Zelos' clone we still won't have defeated Infidelitas with that. We don't even know who is actually pulling the strings in their organization. Professor Elytis apparently isn't the one, otherwise they wouldn't have been willing to sacrifice him so readily. Zelos' clone can't be the one either because he has existed only for five weeks so far," Raine commented.

"We have to know where their headquarter is, hm?" Yuan thought loudly while placing his hand on his chin. Suddenly he looked up. "My men once watched those guys with the dark blue cloaks and the sunglasses entering the temple in Luin!"

"So what? Maybe they wanted to pray to Martel," Lloyd said, not seeming to understand what was so unusual about it.

"They belong to Infidelitas, the people who want to destroy the Church of Martel!" Raine explained while she and Yuan were exchanging unbelieving looks.

"Then they probably realized that what they're doing isn't right after all and wanted to beg Martel for forgiveness," Colette remarked happily.

"I don't think so," Genis sighed. "But what did they want in the temple then? It's barely bigger than a garden shed."

"But it was bigger once. The main room was underneath the earth. You know that Luin had been destroyed many times in the past, right? When the city had to be rebuild again and again this underground room slowly vanished into oblivion. During the last rebuilding somebody must've found it but covered it with something so that it wouldn't be seen right away. It doesn't even have to have been somebody of Infidelitas; however, they now probably settled down there," Yuan concluded. "Although it's ironic that they chose a temple of all places. But in the end it's a pretty subtle hideout. At least I wouldn't have thought of looking in such a place for Infidelitas."

So they knew now where they had to search for Infidelitas as soon as they had rescued Zelos. Thus their plan was set, and they just had to wait for the next night to execute it.

When the time had eventually come they put on black cloaks and flew in the proximity of Meltokio with the Rheairds. Unnoticed by the city wards, they sneaked to the entrance of the catacombs through which they eventually reached Meltokio.

"Good. Take this," Yuan said while handing everybody a small gadget.

"What's that?" Lloyd wanted to know.

"Communicators, or rather the trial versions of it. How come you have so many with you?" Regal asked Yuan.

"Coincidence. I took some from the Magy Corp because I wanted to give them to some of my men for testing when the base exploded," he explained. "Alright, I'll go ahead to see if the coast is clear."

However, before he could leave Raine clutched his arm. "Take care of yourself."

Yuan nodded and set off while Genis looked at his sister with big eyes. "There's something going on between you two after all! And what about that necklace you've been wearing since this morning? Is it from Yuan?"

Raine rolled her eyes. "Genis, sometimes you're really a nuisance."

While Genis was sulking Regal's communicator emitted a light. He pushed a button, and a small transparent miniature version of Yuan appeared. "Nobody's on the streets. You can set off."

After Yuan were with them again he led them to Sebastian's house. They had to wait for some time until the door was finally opened after some knocking. Sebastian had a candle in his hand and looked first tired, then startled. But it wasn't really surprising because probably nobody would've been glad to be knocked out of bed in the middle of the night by eight hooded figures.

"Sebastian, it's me," Sheena said, stepping forward.

"Miss Sheena? What …"

"We better explain that inside," Raine uttered.

Sebastian let them come into the house and then closed the door. After they had told him everything he nodded. "So that's why the master acted so strange lately. There isn't really a secret passage, but the servant's entrance is never locked and should also be unguarded if there are guards inside." He described them where the servant's entrance was and how they could get to the cellar. "Please rescue the master."

"We will, Sebastian. I promise," Sheena said before the group left the house and sneaked to Zelos' mansion. They got unnoticeably into it.

"We should split up," Yuan said. "One group rescues Zelos and the other one takes care of his clone."

"I want to teach the clone a lesson!" Lloyd remarked with determination. "He will get the shock of his life!"

"I want to rescue Zelos," Sheena uttered.

Sheena, Genis, Colette and Presea eventually headed to the cellar to rescue Zelos while Lloyd, Yuan, Regal and Raine wanted to take care of his clone.

Sheena's group ran into some confused guards in the cellar, but they could defeat them easily before they were able to raise the alarm. One of the guards also had the key for the door leading to the room in which Zelos was trapped.

Exactly like in Sheena's dream – or whatever it had been in the end – Zelos turned away from the light.

"Zelos!" Sheena exclaimed happily, flinging her arms around his neck sobbingly.

"Sheena?" he asked in surprise. Then he smiled. "I knew you would come."

They opened his shackles with another key and helped him to get up. However, he held his eyes closed the whole time; the light was just too strong for his eyes which were accustomed to the blackest darkness. Sheena took her ribbon that was fortunately long and wide enough and tied it above Zelos' eyes.

"Do you think it's okay like that?" she asked him.

Zelos nodded. "Thank you, Sheena."

She was barely able to suppress the tears. She was so happy that they had found him and that he was alright. "Don't mention it."

"We will probably have to accustom you slowly to light, otherwise you'll lose your eyesight," Genis said. "But first of all we should help the others."

Just at this moment Sheena's communicator began to glow. She was staring at the gadget for some time before she thought to have found the button Regal had pushed earlier. Once again a miniature version of Yuan appeared.

"He's not here," Yuan announced.

"What? Did he knew that we would come?" Sheena asked confusedly.

The next moment there was an explosion, and she and the others were thrown off their feet.

* * *

><p>So, they found Princess Hilda and Zelos, isn't that great? *grin*<p>

And yes, I know I'm evil for writing a cliffhanger again. xD But well, I want to maintain the suspense. ^^ And you just have to bear with it for a week. ;) Next chapter will be the finale by the way ... So this story will be finished next week. =(

To be continued ...


	13. End of the Night

**~ Chapter 12: End of the Night ~**

**_„Wahre Freundschaft kommt am schönsten zur Geltung, wenn es ringsum dunkel wird."_**

**_("True friendship shows to advantage most beautifully when it gets dark all around.")_**

**_Belgian saying_**

:::**  
><strong>

Coughing, I picked myself up. What had happened? I felt a slight pain on my head, but apart from that I seemed to be fine, if you ignored my eyes. But I had to say that Sheena's ribbon was an enormous help. My eyes were shielded from light by it so that I could keep them open, and at the same time I was able to see a little through the cloth. It wasn't optimal, but enough so that I could certainly move through a room with furniture without hitting every possible piece of furniture – only every third maybe.

But that was at the moment my least worry. I tried to wake Sheena who was lying unconsciously next to me. She slowly opened her eyes which calmed me down enormously. So she seemed to be fine.

"What happened?" she asked dizzily.

"I don't really know. There was an explosion," I explained while going to Genis, Presea and Colette who seemed to be fine as well.

Sighing, Sheena was pushing the buttons on the gadget which she had used to speak to Yuan before the explosion. "The communicator is broken. Well, we should search for the others anyway. I hope the explosion didn't hit them harder than us."

So we headed upwards where we found the others mostly unhurt. Raine was just healing some scratches Yuan had gotten; apparently she had already treated Lloyd and Regal. "Are you alright? Genis, you're bleeding!" She was in no time next to her brother and making a song and dance out of a small scratch, which seemed to embarrass Genis, especially in the presence of Presea.

"Raine, it's only a scratch, it's alright," he grumbled.

"That's right! How about treating me first? I'm bleeding much stronger," I complained.

"Don't worry, I won't forget you," Raine said, and a few moments later she treated my wound. "How are you apart from that, Zelos? You have to be starving."

I shook my head. "No, regarding food the imprisonment was really a luxury. My clone wished for me to be well-fed so that his 'surrogate organs' function properly. I've never seen so much healthy food before … I would've liked to just start a hunger strike, but apart from the fact that they would've found a way to get the food inside my stomach I thought that I could need the energy when you finally come to get me."

"We're sorry that it took so long. We should've realized sooner that the guy wasn't you," Yuan uttered.

Sheena nodded. "I'm sorry, too, Zelos … I …" She buried her face in her hands. "I fell for your clone so easily!"

I hugged her. "It's alright, Sheena. I understand that. He must've seemed to you like Prince Charming …"

"But he isn't. I only didn't know that … I didn't know that I had already found my Prince Charming … Although he acts like an idiot sometimes." She was grinning at me.

I smiled. I was so happy to be able to enfold her in my arms and that she seemed to feel the same for me as I did for her. It was almost as if my most beautiful dream had come true.

"Though I don't like to interrupt this romantic moment I think it would be wiser to leave this place as quickly as possible before another explosion takes place," Regal uttered.

We agreed with him, and so we headed outside. In the meantime, the habitants, who of course hadn't been able to continue sleeping after the explosion, had gathered around my mansion, looking at us pretty confusedly when we got out of the destroyed house. Of course they looked especially puzzled when they saw me. I really had to look stupid with the ribbon tied over my eyes, but it couldn't be changed. Many asked me if everything was alright with me, but I didn't really have the opportunity to answer them because I was woolgathering. Sighing, I glanced at my mansion which was pretty demolished. Just why did my mansion of all places have to be blown up? And who was the responsible one in the end? I thought it unlikely that it had been my clone because I could've died in that explosion by all means which wasn't in his interest. So somebody else had to be behind the assault. When I explained this to the others Yuan nodded.

"I have already a suspicion. Sheena, do you still remember how Zelos' clone recommended to me after the confirmation of his pretended alibi to scrutinize this Gregory?"

Sheena nodded.

"I did so. There were even some things indicative that he is the murderer of the king; for example, we have found the weapon used in the crime with him. But he had an alibi, and I was convinced anyway that it had been the clone. However, the most interesting I found out during my investigation is the fact that Gregory belongs to Infidelitas as well and might be even the leader."

"Wait, but Zelos' clone also belongs to Infidelitas. Why should he put the blame on one of his own people?" Genis asked.

"That's the strange part. By now I have the suspicion that the clone wants to topple Gregory. But he will have noticed that and has now the endeavor to knock him off as quickly as possible before he bites the dust himself," Yuan replied.

"That means this Gregory caused the explosion just now to kill Zelos' clone," Raine remarked. "But he wasn't there. Did he maybe already know of the assault?"

"Unlikely. Then he wouldn't have left Zelos behind because his organs are so important to him," Regal objected.

"Ahh, all of this is so confusing!" Lloyd moaned, rubbing his head. "So, actually this means that those guys of Infiselimas are at war with one another?"

"Infidelitas!" Genis corrected.

"That's what I said," Lloyd grumbled.

Yuan folded his arms in front of his chest. "I think we will find both Gregory and the clone in the hideout of Infidelitas."

"So we have to go to the temple in Luin," Presea remarked.

With that we headed to Luin; I was flying together with Sheena on her Rheaird because first of all there was none left for me, and secondly I would've probably flown regularly against something in my current state. When we reached Luin the sun was just rising, something my eyes didn't really like. Against a certain degree of brightness Sheena's ribbon was also pretty powerless, and so I was glad when we entered the somewhat darker temple. We were lucky, the secret door was open. Somebody hadn't been careful enough or had been too sure that nobody would come here. What a pity that we had to put a spoke in this person's wheel.

When we then came into the underground main room we saw the people of Infidelitas, fighting against each other. Apparently the one half of them was on the side of my clone, and the other half was on the one of Gregory who had always been suspicious to me by the way. Though it surprised me that he of all people was the leader of a group wanting to destroy the Church of Martel because he had always gotten along very well with the Pope – which had been also the reason for my distrust of him – and he had once been a cleric himself. But who knew what was going on in the minds of such weird persons?

In any case he just tried to resist my clone, who was attacking him with a sword, with everything he got. However, Gregory had the disadvantage that he wasn't able to fight, and so it was probably thanks to pure luck that he was still alive.

But our arrival seemed to distract him so much that he was negligent for a moment by what my clone succeeded with piercing his sword through Gregory's chest. Well, it wasn't really a shame with Gregory, but I couldn't cheer either, after all I wished my clone the same fate, and I would see that my wish came true.

I drew a sword I had taken with me before we had left my demolished mansion and walked towards my clone. It was time to settle this all for once. It was either him or me. We couldn't both continue existing.

"Zelos! You can't fight in your state!" Sheena exclaimed in shock.

Admittedly, I couldn't see optimally, and I didn't have any exercise for the last five weeks, but I had to fight this battle. There was no way going past it. I couldn't allow for anybody else to fight for me. "This is _my_ battle! You stay out of it."

"Zelos, please listen to reason," Raine asked now as well.

"Zelos is right. He has to fight this battle," Yuan uttered.

I still heard that this triggered off a fierce discussion between him, Raine and Sheena. The others were certainly also stating their opinion, but I didn't hear that anymore. By now I was only a few meters away from my clone who had an amused expression on his face.

"So you want to fight me alone? Then I'll have an easy job of it," he said.

"We will see who will eventually win this fight, clone or original," I replied.

We rushed towards each other, and our swords collided. Though I had certainly some disadvantages I was able to stood up to him pretty well. But then I was blinded by a bright light for a short moment – maybe it was one of the swords from the fighting persons around me that had reflected the light of the torches – so that I was negligent for a moment, and my clone was able to pierce his sword through my belly.

I heard horrified screams, but I ignored them, just like I ignored the pain and the darkness that was slowly spreading. I still had to do something … As long as the sword of my enemy was still in my body he was defenseless, and I used that by stabbing his chest with my sword.

While he looked at me unbelievingly I just smiled triumphantly before both of us collapsed, and everything around me got dark.

* * *

><p>Sorry that it's so late, but I had to work today (my first day ^^). That's why I hadn't got the time to proofread this chapter either, but I will do it on Saturday.<p>

I know the end is pretty mean, and that's why the epilogue will follow in a second. ;) There is also a special chapter with Yuan x Raine scenes (which probably isn't interesting for everybody), but that will follow on Saturday.

To be continued ... in a second. xD

EDIT: This chapter is proofread now. But of course there can still be some mistakes ... ^^"


	14. Epilogue

**~ Epilogue ~**

**_„Frauen sind merkwürdig: Sie wollen alle einen Don Juan zum Mann – aber einen für sich allein."_**

**_("Women are strange: They all want a Don Juan as a husband – but one for them alone.")_**

**_Heinrich Spoerl (1887 – 1955)_**

:::**_  
><em>**

**Two weeks later …**

Sheena was playing with the cocktail umbrellas in her drink without really realizing it. With her thoughts she was still at the burial that had taken place some days ago. It would probably still take quite some time until she had gotten over the loss.

"You're brave, Sheena," a voice remarked.

When she looked around she saw Yuan who was walking towards her. "I just think that he wouldn't have wanted me to mope all the time … They both wouldn't have wanted it."

"You're probably right." Yuan sighed. "I lost so many of my men … And the question I'm asking myself lately is 'For what?'. Just because some people wanted to seize power and had a bomb fetish …"

Sheena nodded. "It's the same with me … Infidelitas leveled Mizuho to the ground just like that, and that only because they wanted to kill _me_ …"

"You're not still blaming yourself, are you? It's not your fault. Maybe they would've attacked Mizuho anyway because you protected all the clerics and pilgrims and thus were a thorn in their flesh."

Sheena nodded slowly, but she couldn't help thinking again and again that it was her fault. It was almost like in the past when she hadn't been able to make a pact with Volt … Somehow she had always only done harm to her village.

"Well, enough with the gloomy thoughts. After all, we're here to celebrate that the last persons of Infidelitas are finally behind bars," Yuan said grinningly, clicking glasses with her.

"Yeah." Sheena smiled. Yuan was right, they should really celebrate. They had defeated Infidelitas, Princess Hilda – or rather Queen Hilda – was now reigning over Tethe'alla, and the Magy Corp in Sylvarant as well as the Bases of the Renegades were being rebuild.

Fortunately the building of the branch of the Lezareno Company in Sylvarant had been finished in the meantime, so that the Magy Corp was able to produce some things there and thus the economic state of Sylvarant didn't worsen even more.

Raine came towards them, shaking her head. "Can somebody make this gentleman clear that he needs a great deal of rest and has to take care of himself?" She pointed with a sigh at Zelos who had apparently wanted to celebrate with them in spite of his wound which still hadn't healed completely.

"You could've guessed that much. He would never miss a party," Regal remarked laughingly, consorting with them.

"But he should still rest. He escaped death only scarcely; he shouldn't scramble around the area in his state," Raine said.

"Ah, let him be. If he collapses it's not your fault," Yuan replied. "How about you just forget Zelos and dance with me?"

"Alright," Raine said smilingly, and so the two disappeared on the dance floor where Lloyd, Colette, Genis and Presea were already having fun.

In the meantime, Sheena was looking around for Zelos and clenched her fists when she finally saw him talking grinningly to a woman, taking something from her and eventually hugging her.

"Yes, that's Zelos as we know him," Regal laughed, now looking in that direction as well. "What will you now do, Sheena?"

"I'll kill him!" Sheena hissed, already walking towards the red-haired Chosen.

The woman he had hugged had gone away in the meantime, and Zelos was glancing smilingly at the object the woman had given to him, until he realized that a pretty upset Sheena was advancing.

"Who the hell was this woman?" she snapped at him.

Zelos blinked confusedly until he seemed to know why it upset her that much. "Ah, Sheena, it's not as you think …"

She socked him on the jar by what the sunglasses, which he still had to wear for protection against light, shifted slightly. "Tell it to the marines! And I thought you changed, at least a little bit! But instead your flirting again with some woman who …"

"She's a jeweler!" Zelos objected.

"Oh, well, then everything's of course alright! Do you think that would change anything?" Sheena clamored furiously.

"You don't understand … I didn't flirt with her!"

Sheena huffed. "But it looked pretty much that way when you hugged her!"

"That? That was only to show my gratitude and because I was so happy that she …"

"Argh, you know what? I don't feel like discussing this any longer!" Angry, Sheena turned away from him.

Zelos clutched her wrist. "You know what she gave to me? Did you see it?"

"No, and it doesn't interest me either what it was!"

Zelos put something into her hand. "She made it for me. I was so grateful that she had it already with her today; I thought that I would have to wait longer."

Sheena was now looking confusedly at the object Zelos had put in her hand. It was a small black box. "What … is this?"

"Open it," Zelos demanded.

She slowly opened the box, and a silver ring with an opal shining in all sorts of colors surfaced.

Sheena looked at Zelos with big eyes.

"When I was trapped I always asked myself what I would do if I were free again. To marry you was at the top of the list." He put the ring on her finger while she was still speechless. "I hope you don't have anything against marrying such an idiot like me."

Sheena finally found her voice again – she had already forgotten how annoying that could be. "No … No …"

Zelos looked at her for a moment in shock.

"No, I don't have anything against it," she said when she realized that he thought she would've said 'no' to his proposal. Smiling and totally happy, she flung her arms around his neck. "I would even be very happy."

Zelos enfolded her in his arms. "I love you, Sheena."

"I love you, too."

Zelos looked at her smilingly. "You know what helped me to not lose my mind?"

Sheena shook her head.

"To know that you and the others are somewhere out there, that you would someday find out the truth and rescue me. To know that I'm not alone."

* * *

><p>Waaah, it's over (apart from the special chapter). =( I hope you enjoyed reading this story. It's one of my stories I really love because I think I really did a great job here. ^^<p>

So, those of you who are interested in the special chapter (which contains only Yuan x Raine scenes) will have to wait until Saturday.

The End (more or less)

EDIT: I proofread the epilogue now as well. Sorry if there are still some mistakes.


	15. Yuan x Raine Scenes

Well, here's the special chapter. =)

Um, these scenes are in between the main story and describing what Yuan and Raine did at some scenes. And of course their relationship is developing in these scenes as well. ;)

So, have fun reading it. ^^

* * *

><p><strong>Yuan x Raine Scenes<strong>

**Chapter 2 (The traditional summer festival in Mizuho):**

Raine watched Zelos and Sheena walking to the river. It was really strange how Zelos was acting today. Raine had the feeling that it wouldn't be that way only for today.

She sighed. Maybe she was also only paranoid. But still there was this … feeling. This feeling that something wasn't right.

"You're once again thinking too much, Raine," Yuan remarked.

"Yes, probably …" Raine sighed.

The fireworks started, and the colored lights managed to distract Raine for a while. Yuan was standing next to her and looking into the sky like her until he suddenly said: "We should keep an eye on Zelos. I have a bad feeling."

Raine nodded with surprise. "Yes, it's the same with me …"

"By the way, you're looking stunning in that yukata," Yuan suddenly uttered.

Raine blinked in surprise. She felt how she blushed. "T … Thanks …"

Yuan was just grinning.

:::

**Chapter 4 (The gala of the Magy Corp):**

Yuan led Raine to the dance floor, and they started to move in time with the music. Raine knew that Yuan hadn't only wanted to dance with her.

"It's gradually getting stranger …" she uttered.

"Yes." Yuan looked serious. "I somehow don't believe that Zelos knows Professor Elytis just because of Seles … I don't like it that he knows Professor Elytis anyway."

"Why?" Raine wanted to know while doing a turn.

"Well, the professor has always given me the creeps … But his company supports the Magy Corp and is one of the co-financers, that's why I didn't say anything yet. But now … I think I'll do some research."

Raine nodded. "I will ask around a little bit in Zelos' vicinity. I don't like his sudden change of personality at all."

"Sheena, however, all the more," Yuan uttered, pointing at the black haired kunoichi who was dancing with Zelos by now.

"Yes … And that's exactly what's worrying me."

"Then we should find out quickly what's wrong with Zelos so that we can warn Sheena."

Raine nodded. When the dance ended she already wanted to leave, but Yuan didn't let her go.

"Where are you going? Have you already enough from dancing?"

Raine looked at him with surprise. "I just thought …"

Yuan smiled, amused. "You thought I only asked you for a dance so that we can talk without interruption? Think again. I would never miss the chance to dance with such a beautiful woman."

Raine was blushing once again before they continued dancing.

:::

**Chapter 5 (Base of the Renegades in Triet):**

Raine entered the Base of the Renegades and headed to Yuan's office. He was looking up from some papers and smiled at her.

"Raine!"

"I found out some things regarding Zelos. In fact …"

Yuan had stood up by now and walked towards her. He lifted her chin slightly which left her speechless at first.

"Raine, you look as if you hadn't slept much the last night. You shouldn't overdo it," Yuan sighed.

"I just have much to do … A scroll doesn't translate itself on its own after all, and the scholars are just waiting …"

"Ah, the scholars can also continue waiting a little bit longer. It's important that you get your sleep," Yuan said, having placed his hand on her cheek by now.

With an effort, Raine suppressed the blush that wanted to appear on her face once again. Actually she hadn't been able to sleep last night because of a totally different reason … She had to think all the time about the gala at which she had danced with Yuan. Even now her heart was beating a little bit faster when she thought about that, though Yuan's hand on her cheek was adding to it as well.

She wanted to say something, but he interrupted her. "Shh. We shouldn't ruin this moment by unnecessary words." He let his thumb wander slowly over Raine's lips so that she shivered slightly. He was slowly getting closer to her; her heart started a marathon, but then the door was suddenly opened, and a Renegade entered. He brought Yuan new documents which he had seemingly wished for.

The spell was broken. Yuan took his hand from Raine's cheek with a sigh and took the documents the Renegade was handing him. The renegade then left the office and Yuan and Raine were alone again.

Yuan skipped shortly through the documents and then put them on his desk with a sigh while Raine was sitting down on the couch.

"Even more work, great … Documents I wished for, don't make me laugh … It's more like they're forced upon me," Yuan moaned. "Alright, where did we stop?"

Raine blushed.

Yuan grinned. "Ah, that's right." Then he got serious again. "You wanted to tell me what you found out about Zelos."

Raine nodded, serious again as well. "I probably know now when the change of Zelos' personality occurred. It must have been shortly after Zelos and Sheena came back from their longer stay in Palmacosta and made their report to the king. He disappeared and came back only in the late evening. But the interesting thing is that two men in dark blue cloaks with sunglasses apparently took him somewhere."

"Hmm … That's really very interesting …" Yuan murmured.

(After that it goes on with the conversation Sheena overhears. Sheena enters, talks to the two and eventually rushes out of the room angrily.)

Raine was following Sheena with her eyes gloomily. "I wished she hadn't learned of our suspicion yet …"

"But then again she's now warned. It's maybe better like that. She should finally accept that not everything is alright with Zelos."

"I can understand her a little bit … I mean, in the end we don't have any proofs yet that Zelos and Professor Elytis are really working together … We don't even know on what. And the matter with Infidelitas is really strange …"

Yuan nodded. "Yes. But maybe it was only supposed to be a diversion …"

"What do you mean?" Raine looked at him questioningly.

"Well … Maybe Zelos or Professor Elytis noticed that we don't fully trust them and wanted to confuse us with this assault."

"You mean it wasn't real? Hmm … That would certainly be imaginable …" Raine was pensive for a while. "I have an idea."

Yuan raised one eyebrow and looked at her expectantly.

"I'll just start working for Professor Elytis. That way I'll definitely find out something."

Yuan wasn't really thrilled by the idea. "What? No way! That's much too dangerous!"

"Nonsense. What should happen to me? Besides … Do you have a better idea?" Raine wanted to know.

Yuan was silent for a while. "I'll do it. I'll start working for him."

"Yuan, he knows you!" Raine objected.

"That's true … But he knows you, too!"

Raine shook her head. "But only by sight, if at all. And that I was at one of his lectures could be an advantage. That way he maybe trusts me more easily."

Yuan still didn't seem to be happy with that. "What if he saw us dancing together at the gala? Then he'll probably find out quickly that we know each other, and then the trust is gone."

Raine slightly blushed while thinking of the dance. "I could just claim that I only got to know you that evening …" She sighed. "Yuan, what else shall we do? It's momentarily our only possibility to unravel this whole mystery."

He seemed to search for new arguments forcefully, but eventually he sighed. "Alright … But I don't really like that. Promise me that you'll be careful."

Raine nodded. "I promise."

:::

**Chapter 6 (In front of the castle in Meltokio):**

"Yuan!" Raine ran towards the blue haired half-elf when he came out of the castle with some Renegades. "How does it look?"

Yuan sighed. "Bad. The king was probably stabbed with a sword from behind. However, the weapon wasn't found yet. Well, and Zelos has an alibi … Although I'll still chase it up a little more. Sebastian could've confirmed this alibi by mere courtesy after all."

"Or Zelos really doesn't have anything to do with the murder … I mean, I can imagine that he is involved in some dark deeds with Professor Elytis, but murder? I don't trust Zelos to do something like that …"

"But everything fits together so well. The king dead, the princess missing and Zelos in power … Maybe he didn't commit the murder himself, but he has something to do with it, I'm sure of it. What did he say in his speech?"

Raine took out her notes. "Nothing suspicious. After he had explained the situation he asked the people to keep eyes and ears open to find Princess Hilda as quickly as possible. Then there was a minute of silence for the king."

"Hmm … There's really nothing suspicious with it. However, I stick to my suspicion." Yuan frowned pensively. "But still I'll deal with this Gregory …"

"Gregory?" Raine asked.

"Apparently the closest consultant of the king. Zelos suspects him. And even if I'm still sure that Zelos has something to do with the murder of the king I'll investigate a little bit regarding this Gregory."

Raine nodded. "Alright. I have to leave for work now."

"Already found something out?" Yuan wanted to know.

"No."

"Did Professor Elytis become suspicious?"

Raine raised an eyebrow. "Yuan, do you think I would go to work calmly if he did?" She shook her head. "Don't worry." She already wanted to leave when Yuan called after her again.

"Raine!"

She turned around. "I'll take care of myself, don't worry."

"I know … That's not it."

Raine looked at him questioningly, but he shook his head. "It's not important. Be careful."

She nodded and walked away; however, she thought to hear something like 'I don't want to lose you', but she couldn't detect whether it had come from Yuan or from one of the many persons standing in front of the castle. When she turned around again she couldn't see Yuan anymore either because of the many persons.

:::

**Chapter 7 (Raine's and Genis' house):**

Yuan sighed and took a necklace out of his pocket, looking at it. Maybe today was the day … But maybe it wasn't. In any case he was here for another reason.

He knocked on the door which was opened some moments later. Raine let him come in; she looked pretty serious. Presumably she had found out something bad. So today probably wasn't the day …

"Did somebody follow you? Did somebody see you?" Raine wanted to know.

Yuan was a little bit surprised by the questions, but he could imagine that she didn't want somebody from Professor Elytis' people to find out that they knew each other. He shook his head whereupon she seemed to be relieved.

"Genis is already sleeping. I'm still wondering how I managed that … But it's better if he doesn't hear about this …"

"That bad?" Yuan asked.

"Bad maybe isn't the right word … Rather … astonishing … but still bad …" She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. She was pacing up and down anxiously. "It's so incredible, I …"

Yuan hugged her. "Calm down, Raine. Tell me what you found out." He watched her blushing again with amusement.

They sat down on the couch, and Raine started to explain. "I found a report which describes a method of how to create a body artificially and to give him a personality."

Yuan raised an eyebrow; he couldn't quite follow.

Raine sighed. "It was written very elaborately so that even I had troubles, but … I think I know what's really meant by the creation of an artificial body … A clone."

Yuan looked at her with big eyes. "A clone? You mean … that's what they did with Zelos? They cloned him? Of course that would explain much … That's why he suddenly acted so differently …"

Raine nodded. "They probably gave the clone a personality according to their wishes. Actually pretty risky because everybody should've noticed this, but of course they couldn't use Zelos' personality for their aims."

"But why did they clone Zelos then? What did they want to accomplish by that?" Now it was Yuan who was pacing up and down anxiously. "We're assuming after all that it was Infidelitas. It's their aim to destroy the Church of Martel. Why are they then cloning Zelos instead of killing him? If they haven't already killed the real Zelos …"

"I'm sure that Zelos is still alive. It would be pretty stupid to kill him; they can still use his organs after all, if something happens to the clone. But I also wondered the whole time why they took Zelos of all persons … I think Infidelitas doesn't only have the aim to destroy the Church of Martel but also to seize power over Tethe'alla. Then it would've been of course the easiest thing to topple the king. But the people would've rejected the next ruler, and Infidelitas wants to avoid that. They want somebody in power whom the people love. The next possibility would then have been to clone the king. But he's already old, and his clone would've probably died quicker because of that. The next highest position has the princess, but I can imagine quite well that they didn't take her because she's a woman, and many people think that a woman shouldn't be in power. The next one was Zelos."

"Hmm … Plausible." Yuan sighed. "Infidelitas is not an organization to be trifled with." He rubbed his head. "Now it's also clear how they killed the king. Zelos was brought into his mansion and placed in his study. Only that he wasn't asleep but unconscious … And he had a bruise on his arm which Sebastian saw. So while the real Zelos was there his clone murdered the king … After that Zelos was brought away again, and his clone took his place whereupon he had an alibi. Clever."

"The only question is where the real Zelos is …"

Yuan nodded. "Yes, we have to find that out next." He launched himself on the couch and cocked his head, moaning. "Just what did we get into?"

Suddenly it was knocking on the door. Raine froze and threw a short, alarmed glance at Yuan. She slowly walked to the window and looked outside. She relaxed again, and Yuan realized that he had been fraught as well.

"It's Sheena. I'm wondering what she's doing here."

"I bet it has something to do with Zelos or rather his clone," Yuan uttered before Raine opened the door.

:::

**Chapter 9 (Ruins of the Base of the Renegades in Triet; the following happenings from Yuan's point of view):**

Yuan's sight was blurry. He saw only splashes of colors that slowly took contours. At the same time he heard an upset voice calling his name.

"What …" Yuan uttered dizzily when he realized that it was Sheena. What had happened anyway? His head was buzzing like a swarm of bees.

Sheena explained to him that Zelos' clone knew about them and that they had to warn Raine.

Yuan remembered everything again. He had just wanted to give the Renegades some communicators for testing when there suddenly had been a fierce explosion. It was a miracle that he had gotten away with only some scratches. When he then slowly realized what Sheena had just said he sat up with a flounce. "Raine is in the laboratories of Professor Elytis! We have to hurry!"

While they were flying to the mentioned laboratories Yuan cursed the Rheairds for not flying faster. If even one single finger had been laid on Raine …! That was the only thought that was able to cross his mind. Raine. She had to be fine. Otherwise he would never be able to forgive himself!

With drawn weapons they entered the building. Yuan was admittedly not really gentle when he asked one of the employees about Professor Elytis' whereabouts, but that was all the same to him. He just wanted to rescue Raine, even if it was the last thing he did.

They rushed into the room at which the employee had pointed. Professor Elytis was standing in front of a strange machine and typing on something, but Yuan lost interest in it when he found Raine lying in one of the glass cases. "Raine!" At the same moment Yuan attacked furiously the surprised Professor Elytis whom he hit unconscious with his weapon. Of course he would've liked to do some more things to him, but they still needed him. He left it to Sheena to shackle the professor and rather busied himself with typing on the keyboard of the glass case to somehow open it and free Raine.

However, he didn't have a clue how the machine was operated. Eventually his patience snapped. "Ah, damn it all!" He eventually destroyed the glass with his weapon to finally be able to get the unconscious Raine out of the machine. He laid her softly on the ground and brushed some strands of hair out of her face by what she eventually woke up.

She looked confusedly at Yuan. "Yuan …?" Then she seemed to notice the small cutting wounds he had gotten from the explosion of the base. "You're hurt!" She sat up and apparently wanted to heal him, but Yuan clutched her hands.

"That's not important now. Is everything alright with you? Did this guy do anything to you?" Vitriolic, he looked at Professor Elytis. As soon as they knew where Zelos was he would meet death.

"He injected me with some narcotic fluid … He wanted to clone me …" Raine uttered.

Nobody cloned his Raine. Nobody. Never. He was just glad that they had been able to prevent it in time.

After they had explained to Raine what had happened to Mizuho and the Bases of the Renegades and Raine had told them that Professor Elytis had remembered to have seen Raine and Yuan together at the gala, Zelos' clone appeared. Yuan attacked him, but he didn't stand a chance alone. However, he soon got help by Regal who appeared unexpectedly. Zelos' clone thereupon disappeared. Though Regal and Yuan ran after him, they lost him.

They activated the self-destruct mechanism, and after they had left the building with the tied Professor Elytis, it exploded.

Yuan wanted to go to the Magy Corp to get some things but learned from Regal that it had been blown up. Of course that was really great. Yuan was cursing again. Infidelitas always seemed to be a step ahead of them.

After they had explained to Regal what was going on and he had told them why he had suddenly appeared, they decided to get the others and then to meet at a place where they were still somewhat safe. Yuan was thinking of Exire. Sheena and Regal were supposed to take Professor Elytis along and to get Presea, and he and Raine would take care of Genis, Lloyd and Colette.

When he and Raine landed in Iselia Raine looked at him worriedly. "Let me heal you first of all."

Yuan shook his head. "We don't have time for that now."

"Yuan, please!" She almost looked at him pleadingly. "Otherwise it will prey on my mind …"

He smiled slightly. "Alright."

She put her hands on his face where he had many scratches, and Yuan felt almost immediately how they healed. The buzzing in his head faded away as well. After Raine had healed him he wished that her hands would still linger a little bit longer on his cheeks, but they didn't have time for that now. They ran through Iselia and got Genis, Lloyd and Colette to get to Exire as quickly as possible.

:::

**Chapter 10 (Exire):**

Yuan and Raine were walking outside to get some fresh air.

Raine sighed. "That way we'll never find out where Zelos is …"

"We'll somehow get the professor to talk. I'm sure of it. He probably doesn't say anything because he knows that if he has told us where Zelos is his time's up," Yuan replied.

"Yuan …"

"I will never forgive him for wanting to clone you!" he uttered in an upset tone.

"You were able to prevent it," Raine said softly.

"Yes, fortunately. It doesn't bear contemplating what would've happened if they managed to do so."

Raine looked pensive. "I'm wondering … whether my clone and I could've been told apart …"

"If they had given the clone another personality, definitively. But even if not … I would've still been able to tell you apart from your clone."

"Why?" Raine wanted to know. "You weren't able to do so with Zelos either."

Yuan brushed a few strands of hair out of her face. "I could do so because of my feelings for you." He felt that this was the right time. "Close your eyes, Raine."

"What?" she asked confusedly.

Yuan smiled. "Just do it."

She still hesitated for a moment, then she closed her eyes. In the meantime, Yuan took out the necklace he had already wanted to give her some time ago. He put it around Raine's neck while she was grasping the cold silver pendant.

"You can open your eyes again."

She glanced at the pendant. It was a silver heart with two carved swans forming with their heads and necks a heart themselves. Raine started smiling. "Thank you. It's beautiful."

Yuan hugged her. "But nothing compared to you." He was kissing her softly, but it got pretty soon more passionate.

:::

**Chapter**** 11 (Zelos' mansion):**

"Lloyd, Regal, you search down here. Raine and I will go upstairs," Yuan announced.

The two nodded and entered the first room while Yuan and Raine went upstairs.

"I have somehow a bad feeling …" Raine murmured.

"Don't worry, probably nothing bad will happen," Yuan tried to cheer her up.

They entered a room; Zelos' sleeping-room. No trace of the clone. The same with the guest room next.

"Don't you think everything's going a little bit too well?" Raine asked. "Zelos' clone isn't a fool. He would've certainly placed some guards … But nobody's here!"

The next room was empty as well. Yuan nodded. "It is indeed a little bit strange … Maybe he isn't here at all."

"But he can't have known that we would come, right? Besides, that would mean that Zelos isn't here either …" Raine uttered.

"We will still find that out. Let's go downstairs again."

"Yuan!" She nestled up against him. "Please hold me in your arms … Just for a moment …"

He ran a hand over her back. "I would like to hold you in my arms forever, if we had the time for that."

Raine detached from him and looked at him with a smile. They walked downstairs where they found Lloyd and Regal. Apparently the two hadn't found anybody either.

Yuan took out his communicator with a sigh and let Sheena know that Zelos' clone wasn't here. Moments later there was an explosion.

:::

**Epilogue (At the Lezareno Company):**

Yuan had put his arm around Raine while they were slowly moving in time to the music. He was just glad that everything was finally over. That the danger was averted for now.

"I told Genis about us. He just kept on and on," Raine uttered quietly.

Wasn't maybe every danger averted after all? "Oh, do I have to be seriously worried?"

"Yes." Raine looked at him seriously. "He'll bully you terribly the next weeks."

Yuan sighed. "Can't I just bribe him with a book or something like that?"

Raine laughed. "Just kidding, Yuan. He doesn't have any objections. He thinks you're alright. He just wanted to finally know about it."

"Well, then I'm relieved. Of course I wouldn't have been browbeaten." He kissed her softly. "I will protect you, Raine, no matter what happens."

Raine smiled and nestled up against him. "If you're protecting me I know that nothing can happen to me."

Yes. He would protect Raine. Even if it cost his life.

* * *

><p>*sniff* Isn't it sweet? Ok, sometimes it's really sappy, but all in all ... xDD I like this pairing, though I still prefer Kraine ... ^^<p>

So ... Now the story is really over ... =(

I really hope you enjoyed this story. ;)


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